A pair of north Italian terracotta sculptures of Niobe and Papirius and his mother in the manner of Ignazio and Filippo Collino, after the antique, late 18th Century

The thriving Piedmonte workshop of Ignazio and Filippo Collino was at the forefront of early Italian neoclassicism. Particularly their time as assistants of Giovanni Battista Maini in Rome roused a taste for Hellenistic sculpture that would dominate their work from there on. It comes as no surprise that the earliest works known of either brother are copies after the Antique.

As the other prominent Italian sculptors of the 18^th century the brothers' work in terracotta is of the highest quality. The expert modelling of the rippling drapery and smooth but powerful anatomy of the present groups summarises the monumentality and vigour of the originals perfectly. As such the groups are highly reminiscent of Ignazio Collino's terracotta's of Hercules and the Nemean Lion and Sacrificing Vestal in the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Albertina of Turin.

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Cagliotti, 'Fifteenth-Century Reliefs of Ancient Emperors and Empresses in Florence: Production and Collecting', N. Penny and E.D. Schmidt (eds.), Collecting Sculpture in Early Modern Europe, New Haven/ London, 2008, pp. 106-7, note 81; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris, 1999, vol. 3, p. 791