ITALIAN, LATE 18TH CENTURY AFTER THE ANTIQUE | Lucretia as the Sleeping Ariadne

By repute Stowe House, Buckinghamshire

Inventory, 1893, ‘A white marble reclining figure’ in the Entrance Hall;

Inventory, 1949, 'A carved alabaster reclining female figure on rectangular shaped plinth 24” wide' in the Inner Hall

The model was purchased by Pope Julius II in 1512 and installed in the Belvedere Courtyard, where it remains today in the Vatican Museums (inv. no. 548). Long identified as Cleopatra, the model was known to represent Ariadne by the beginning of the 19th century. The present alabaster is typical of the Grand Tour taste for expensive souvenirs of the seminal treasures of Rome. Interestingly, the model has here been reinterpreted as Lucretia, with the addition of a dagger and chest wound.

Related Literature

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 184-187, no. 24