ITALIAN (late 18th century)

A ROMAN GIRL

Bronze 56ins

Mackelvie Collection, 1883

We have for a long time been intrigued by this work which was formerly credited with being Roman 1st century AD. We are therefore most grateful to Professor Martin Robertson for unearthing the true facts about it.
   It is in fact a bronze replica of a marble A Young Roman Girl in the Louvre (No. 682). The marble was first listed in La Notice Des Statues, 1803. It is possible, although the Louvre has no documented provenance, that it is connected with the marbles at Naples of the daughters of Balbus which were found at Her-culaneum in the early 18th century. It is further conjectured that the marble was one of those sent to Napoleon by Ferdinand IV of Naples, in 1801.
   Our bronze came from the collection of Mu-rat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, who was King of Naples from 1806 to 1815. It must be presumed, therefore, that the bronze was cast from a plaster mould of the marble taken before 1801. Judging from the patina and the erosion on parts of the bronze it is unlikely that this bronze would date from very much later than the same year.
   Despite its very much later dating, the felicity with which the typical Antique character has been captured is no doubt due to the strong neo-classicist sympathies current at the time our bronze was cast.

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