Circle of Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644-1725) | Italian, possibly Siena, early 18th century | Relief roundel with Cleopatra

Please note that this lot will be sent to our Greenford Park warehouse following the sale.

This beautiful late Baroque relief is very close to Mazzuoli's Cleopatra, of which the original marble is in the Jardim do Ultramar (garden of the Colonial Hospital), Lisbon having been acquired for the king of Portugal (see Zeri archive inv. no. 80845; Bacchi, op. cit., p. 823). A terracotta model for the group is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. no. 2003-182-1). The dying Cleopatra is similarly conceived, with tilted head, eyes gazing upwards as if in ecstasy, diadem, and flowing tresses of hair. Giuseppe Mazzuoli was trained by Melchiorre Caffa, Ercole Ferrata and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He became the leading Sienese sculptor of his generation, executing monumental statues of the Twelve Apostles for Siena Cathedral which are now in the Brompton Oratory in London.