RARE BRONZE BUST OF THE SO-CALLED SAPPHO, AFTER THE ANTIQUE OF VILLA DEI PAPIRI
Naples, Italy circa 1900

18" H x 12" D x 23" W

Attributed to Fonderia Chiurazzi, Naples, unmarked
Patinated lost-wax cast bronze with inlaid stone eyes

A finely cast bronze bust after the antique portrait traditionally known as Sappho, excavated at Herculaneum from the Villa dei Papiri on August 23rd of 1758 and now preserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. The present example, attributed to the Neapolitan Fonderia J. Chiurazzi & Fils, was a direct response by the art bronze foundries of Italy to the demand for the finest reproductions of archaeological bronzes throughout the Grand Tour era and afterwards. These were drawn directly from the collections of Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vatican.

The bust presents the young woman with her head turned in calm profile, her long, thick and wavy hair divided down the center and drawn back in ordered waves bound by a double-flat fillet. A mantle of heavy drapery wraps around her chest and shoulders in broad restrained folds, leaving her shoulder bare as it wraps under her proper right armpit. This example is particularly rare in that it retains the original inlaid and inset eyes, each with dark pupils set within pale composition irises. In doing so, the model preserves the most striking effect of the ancient model it is cast after, the figure feeling alive and tangible, present with the viewer. The dark patina and polished passages across the face, shoulders and hair give the bust the visual character of an excavated antique while retaining the crisp finish associated with Chiurazzi production.

The ancient model belongs to the extraordinary sculptural program of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. The villa, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, was rediscovered in the eighteenth century through underground excavations. Its ancient library, preserved as carbonized papyrus rolls, gave the site its modern name. The sculptural finds from the villa were equally important, including bronzes and marbles of philosophers, poets, rulers, athletes, gods and ideal figures. Together they formed one of the most significant surviving ensembles of Roman collecting taste, especially in its admiration for Greek intellectual and artistic culture.

The identification of the antique bust as Sappho is traditional rather than certain. Sappho of Lesbos, active around the late seventh and early sixth century B.C., was the most celebrated female poet of ancient Greece. Her lyric poetry, much of it now fragmentary, was admired in antiquity for its intensity, refinement and command of personal voice. In a Roman villa filled with portraits of Greek thinkers and literary figures, the presence of a female poet would have carried learned associations, linking domestic display with education, cultivated taste and the prestige of Greek literature.

Fonderia Chiurazzi was especially suited to reproducing this type of object. Based in Naples, the foundry became one of the leading firms for bronze casts "after the antique", supplying reductions and full scale reproductions to collectors, museums and academic institutions. Its bronzes were part of a scholarly decorative culture in which ancient sculpture could be studied and displayed beyond the museum. This bust belongs to that tradition, translating one of the most evocative Herculaneum discoveries into a large and highly finished bronze for a modern interior. The present cast is depicted in the catalog they produced together with Sabatino de Angelis & Fils in 1910, numbered the same as its cataloging from Villa dei Papiri (4896). It was offered in that catalog in two patinas, Herculaneum at 300 francs and Moderne for 350 francs, both at a dimension of 47 cm; it was also offered in two reductions of 26 cm (125-150 francs) and 14 cm (50-60 francs). The present cast is executed in the Herculaneum patination and is of the largest dimension.

A Chiurazzi example acquired in 1903 is held in the permanent collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (acc. no. MS3509) with some loss to the inlaid eyes. An example without inlaid eyes is held in the permanent collection of Cornell University. The Queensland Art Gallery of Australia has an example, also with loss to the inlaid eyes, in their permanent collection (acc. no. 1:0102). Numerous examples have been offered over the years with inpainted eyes, but it is exceedingly rare to find the model with intact original stone inlaid eyes.

Reference: The Villa Dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection, Mattusch, J. Paul Getty Trust, 2005, p. 224-225

Condition: Fine original patina with trace wear and rubbing through revealing the underlying bronze (notably to lower edge of garment and vertical drapery of garment in a few spots); eyes with accretion in the crevices, overall very finely preserved.

ref. 604MBP19P