Francesco Pozzi Italian, 1779-1844

Eugene Leone, New York

Sotheby's, New York, 23 May 1990, lot 65

The Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection

The Maestà di Roma has been recently celebrated in major exhibitions in Rome. In the oeuvre of Francesco Pozzi no work better expresses the impact of the great Eternal City on a young Florentine sculptor than his Cyparissus. This was one of his first major compositions in Rome and reflects the dominating influence of the great masters of Neo-classical sculpture: Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen.

As a Florentine working in Rome much of Pozzi's sculptural career was focused back in his native Tuscany where he was appointed professor at the Accademia as early as 1823. The prime marble version of his Cyparissus is in the Palazzo Granducale, Lucca and the original plaster of 1818 is now in the Accademia in Florence.

As a teacher, Pozzi promoted a pure form of Neo-classicism based on the principles of Thorvaldsen, Canova and the prevailing taste in Rome in the first two decades of the nineteenth century, providing a new generation of Florentine sculptors with the academic foundations upon which the innovations of Bartolini were built. Pozzi’s work is still prominent in present day Florence, notably his statue of Farinata degli Uberti, which stands in the Loggiato of the Uffizi (south side facing the Arno), although now rarely appreciated by the average visitor.

Pozzi had a distinguished international career. His work is found especially in Russia and Poland. His activity for English patrons was so notable that it merits an entry in Rupert Gunnis’ Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 which records a bust of The Youthful Hercules (1832) at the Vine, Hampshire and a relief of Charity in Cheshire.

The mythological subject of Cyparissus is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book X). Sacred to the nymphs who lived in the field of Cartea was a huge stag. The stag was especially dear to Cyparissus, a handsome inhabitant of Ceos and son of Telefus. One day, Cyparissus accidentally struck his beloved stag with a javelin, and when he saw it dying from its deep wound, begged the gods to let him mourn eternally. The gods eventually turned him into a cypress tree.