Angelo de Rossi (active circa 1800) Italian, Rome, early 19th century

This figure is  reduction of the antique  marble first  discovered in the baths of Caracalla in Rome minus legs, right hand and head in 1546 and was subsequently reunited with the head which had been excavated some six years earlier. After restoration it remained in the possession of the Farnese family. It stayed in Rome until 1787 when it was sent to Naples, where it is now housed in the Museo Nazionale.

Late sixteenth century reproductions are known but the fashion for the model reached its zenith in the 18th century with the Grand Tour, when the workshops of the Zoffoli brothers and Francesco Righetti were producing casts after antique models.The present signed fine cast is a product of a workshop within their ambit.

RELATED LITERATURE:
F. Haskell & N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, London, 1981, pp.229-232