ATTRIBUTED TO CARLO ALBACINI (1735- CIRCA 1813) AND WORKSHOP, ITALIAN, ROME, CIRCA 1800 | PAIR OF DIONYSIAC GROUPS WITH CORNUCOPIA SUPPORTS, PROBABLY FOR CANDELABRA

Galerie Carroll, Munich, 1970s;

private collection, Bavaria, Germany, until sold 2017

These beautifully carved marble groups are typical examples of the very high quality marble statuary executed in Rome around 1800 for visiting Grand Tourists. In terms of their quality they compare with the finest output of the period, particularly the work of Carlo Albacini who was active between circa 1770 and 1813. Compare with Albacini's copy of the Capitoline Flora in the Indianapolis Art Museum (illustrated in Walker, op. cit., p. 226, no. 104). Albacini, active in Rome, was one of the most prominent sculptors within the Anglo-Roman Neoclassical milieu, and many of the restored antiquities which entered English collections would have been restored or copied by him. Counting the famed collector and antiquary Charles Townley, Catherine the Great, and the King of Naples amongst his clientele, it is curious not more is known about Albacini's life and work. A student of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (circa 1716-1799), also renowned for high quality restorations and reproductions of Roman originals, Albacini quickly established an international reputation. 

Albacini was responsible for numerous double figure groups. Compare, for example, the chimneypiece with Cupid and Psyche and Bacchus and Ariadne from Ickworth, Suffolk, which has been attributed to Albacini and was sold in these rooms on 26 November 2003, lot 87. Albacini is principally known for his copies after the antique as well as his restorations of antiquities. However, he operated a large workshop which was also responsible for decorative marbles including chimneypieces. Given the high quality of the present groups and their double figure configuration, an attribution can be made to Albacini or to sculptors working in his workshop under his supervision. The diadem of the bacchante paired with the bearded Dionysos recalls works by Canova and Thorvaldsen, arguably pointing to a dating towards the end of Albacini's life, circa 1800-1810. The presence of the the wheat sheath on the ground in one of the groups and the bearded Dionysos in its pendant could indicate that the groups were conceived as allegories of Autumn and Winter. The marbles were almost certainly designed to support candelabra, given the fact that they are centred on cornucopia. The two groups are in excellent condition and preserve their original surfaces.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Vaughan, 'Albacini and His English Patrons', in Journal of the History Collections 3, no. 2, 1991, pp. 183-197; D. Walker, 'An Introduction to Sculpture in Rome in the Eighteenth Century' in E. P. Bowron and J. J. Rishel (eds.), Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Arts, Philadelphia, and MFA, Houston, 2000, pp. 211-293