A LARGE LATE 19TH CENTURY ITALIAN MARBLE FIGURE OF A GIRL HOLDING A BIRD BY ROMANELLI

A LARGE LATE 19TH CENTURY ITALIAN MARBLE FIGURE OF A GIRL HOLDING A BIRD BY ROMANELLI

the kneeling, semi-clad girl wearing a floral headdress, her drapery falling over her right knee, clutching a bird to her breast, raised on a naturalistic rectangular base with canted front angles, on a marble plinth with rectangular base, signed 'GALLERIA ROMANELLI, FIRENZE' to the base,

the figure 90cm high, the plinth 77cm high x 60cm deep, overall 167cm high

Catalogue Note:

A near identical figure was at Sotheby's, London, 15 December 2021, lot 48, £20,000 - 30,000.

Romanelli began his career in the most prestigious way possible, he was apprenticed to one of the most important and famous Neo-Classical sculptors of the day, Lorenzo Bartolini. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence under Luigi Pampaloni before he became Bartolini’s collaborator and, upon the master’s death in 1850, the successor of his studio.

Like many of the other Italian marble sculptors of the day, he ran his own studio and gallery, selling their works to the public directly. Other sculptor's such as Pietro Bazzanti also ran their own galleries, exhibiting his own works and those of the most highly regarded sculptors at the time, such as Cesare Lapini, Ferdinando Vichi and Guglielmo Pugi. After Pasquale Romanelli’s death in 1887, his son Raffaello and grandson Romano continued his legacy.

Romanelli was internationally famous for his sensuous mythological and allegorical compositions, which were highly prized by a cosmopolitan clientele, such as Andromeda (see Christie's London, 31 October 1996, lot 432), biblical heroines, such as Ruth (see Christie's London, 30 May 1996, lot 272), and allegorical themes, such as the Four Seasons for Lord Portarlington.

This beautifully carved allegorical figure of a girl protecting a bird relates to other seated female subjects by the sculptor, such as his Odalisque. His work is highly prized today, for example his 'Woodland Nymph' sold at Sotheby's, London, 11 December 2019, lot 72, £93,000.