Ferdinando Andreini was a student of Ulisse Cambi in Florence, and is mostly known for a bust of Victor Emmanuel for the Hall of the Grand Council of Florence, and some funerary monuments, exhibited in Florence in 1861. The present marble, a charming allegory for Dawn, shows the morning sun beginning to rise above the clouds behind the female figure. She, still sleeping, has the moon balanced on her head and holds up the stars in the sky. The swirling drapery winds its way from the top of her hand, around her body, and finishes at the clouds behind her legs: the complicated folds of drapery and her luscious curls show especially delicate carving.
RELATED LITERATURE
A. Panzetta, Nuovo Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell'Ottocento e del Primo Novecento, Turin, 2003, vol. 1, p. 29 and 51