STONE: Marble and Hardstones
STONE: Marble and Hardstones
ITALIAN, ROME, 18TH CENTURY | AFTER THE ANTIQUE | BUST OF FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER (CIRCA 130 - 175/176 C.E.)
Auction Closed
December 4, 11:48 AM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 80,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
ITALIAN, ROME, 18TH CENTURY
AFTER THE ANTIQUE
BUST OF FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER (CIRCA 130 - 175/176 C.E.)
porphyry and Nero antico marble, on a later associated Alabastro fiorito socle
bust: 50cm., 19⅝in.
socle: 13.5cm., 5¼in.
Related Literature
A. Wilton and I. Bignamini, Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat. Tate Gallery, London, 1996-1997, p. 211, no. 158; G. Extermann and A. V. Braga, Splendor marmoris: I colori del marmo, tra roma e l'Europa da Paolo III a Napoleone III, Rome, 2016
As with the preceding Bust of a Faun, this elegant portrait of the Empress Faustina exemplifies the taste for combining expensive and rare coloured marbles which reached its zenith in Rome with the masterful busts and figures executed circa 1600 by the French-born sculptor Nicolas Cordier (1567-1612). The present bust is carved after the ancient portrait of Faustina the Younger which is believed to have been discovered at Hadrian's Villa in Rome, circa 1570, and was subsequently at the Villa d'Este, before being presented to the Musei Capitolini by Pope Benedict XIV in 1748 (inv. no. 449). Faustina the Younger was the daughter of the Emperor Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder, and the wife of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (whom she married in 145). The Capitoline bust was restored by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi in the late 1740s; it is interesting to consider whether the present bust could have been executed around this time, after the model had been brought to prominence.