Italian, Volterra or Naples, late 18th century

This pair of alabaster figures were made as souvenirs for the discriminating Grand Tourist who wanted to return home with a reminder of famous sculptures from ancient Rome and from the Roman Baroque. Each is inscribed with the subject. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a statesman from the early Republic whose life was a model of Roman virtue. Having been banished from public life due the actions of his son, he twice returned from the seclusion of his farm when called on to help the Republic. Both times he assumed responsibility, saved the Republic and then rather than hold on to power returned to his rural exile. This image of Cincinnatus, seemingly fastening his sandals to return to fulfill his public duty, is taken from an antique model that was appropriated from a statue of Hermes by the addition of a plough in some examples. The prime antique marble versions are in the Louvre, Paris and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotheck, Copenhagen. The statue of David is a free interpretation of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s dynamic statue David in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. The sculptor of the alabaster has somewhat clumsily added a helmet where David’s sling should be, presumably to stabilize the outstretched arms, but in the process losing the essential iconography. The combination of Cincinnatus and David is an unusual one, but they may have formed part of a larger set of virtuous historical figures.