Pietro Bazzanti 1842-1881 GIOVANE PESCATORE (A YOUNG FISHERBOY)

white carved carrara marble, signed P. Bazzanti/Firenze, on an associated green marble revolving pedestal.

Alfonso Panzetta, Dizionario degli Scultori italiani, vol. II, Adarte, 2003, p.24, fig.83.
 

Son of the sculptor Nicolò Bazzanti, Pietro was a central figure in the production of Florentine sculpture at the end of the nineteenth century. He is associated with such sculptors as Cesare Lapini, Ferdinando Vichi and G.Pugi, all of whom executed works bearing the inscription Galleria Bazzanti. These sculptors produced accomplished copies after the Antique and well known models by many of the greatest Italian sculptors including Donatello, Giambologna, Canova and Bartolini.

They were also responsible for a number of original genre pieces, capturing images from Italian pastoral and domestic life. Bazzanti's study of a fisherboy ranks amongst the finest compositions of this mode of sculpture, capturing in sensitive detail both the boy's expression of delight as he admires his catch and the realistic texture of the rocks and undergrowth beneath.