Italian, early 19th century

The present pair of fine marbles are carved after well-known sculptures from classical antiquity. Bacchus and Ariadne is carved after the Roman ancient group, circa 1st–2nd century A.D., which was partly restored in the 18th century and is now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (inv. no. 68.770). The intimate marble group of a Cupid and Psyche embracing is after the Roman model, now in the Capitoline Museum. The Roman marble, discovered in 1749, was donated by Pope Benedict XIV to the Capitoline Museum in the following year. Except for a brief sojourn in France, where it was received in Paris with a triumphant procession after being ceded by Napoleon, it was returned to the Roman Museum, where it has remained since. Reductions of both models were particularly popular during the Grand Tour era in Italy.

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, the Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900, London, 1981, pp. 189-191