Circle of Carlo Albacini (circa 1735 – after 1807)

The present marble is carved after the ancient bust known as the Vestal Tuccia and also as the Zingarella or Gypsy-Girl, which is today held in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples (inv.no. 6194). A 17th/18th-century copy is in the Prado, Madrid (inv. no. E000355). The present bust is an example of the Grand Tour taste for high quality 18th-century reproductions of celebrated antique models, which were made by sculpors such as Carlo Albacini. Born and raised in Rome, Albacini became renowned as a restorer of ancient sculptures for the Vatican Museums, from there he was appointed to Naples. There Albacini became intimately familiar with the great collection of Graeco-Roman statuary owned by the Farnese family (including the bust of Caracalla copied here) because he was put in charge of conserving and restoring these statues after they were moved from Rome to Naples. From Albacini's hand are the brilliant restorations of the famous busts of Homer and Euripides from the Farnese collection. Apart from restoring ancient sculptures and sculpting copies after the antique, Albacini was in demand as a sculptor in his own right. His patrons included the royal Bourbon family of Naples, and the Czarina of Russia, Catherine II. Amongst Albacini's most famous works are the tomb of the painter Anton Raphael Mengs in the church of Santi Michele e Magno and the tomb of Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Santa Maria del Priorato in Rome, both commissioned by the Russian Empress.

RELATED LITERATURE
Foreign Catalogue. Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool, 1977, pp. 284-5 and 411-4, nos. 6537-8, 6900 and 9106; G. Vaughan, 'Albacini and his English patrons', Journal of the history of collections, 3, no. 2, 1991, pp. 183-197