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Pair of Bronze Fawns Recast from the Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum: Naples, 1925
Pair of Bronze Fawns Recast from the Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum: Naples, 1925
Description:
This pair of bronze fawns were recently acquired from an estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The pair of bronze fawns were recast by the firm of Ferdinando Marinelli in Florence, Italy. The pair of fawn were discovered at the Villa dei Papyri in Herculaneum, Italy. They are stamped with a foundry plaque in copper: Fonderia Artistica Marinelli Firenze.
The Villa of the Papyri (Italian: Villa dei Papiri, also known as Villa dei Pisoni) is a private house in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum (current commune of Ercolano, southern Italy). Situated north-west of the township, the residence sits halfway up the slope of the volcano Vesuvius without other buildings to obstruct the view. The villa suburbana was perhaps owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. In AD 79, the eruption of Vesuvius covered all of Herculaneum with some 30 m of volcanic ash. Its remains were first excavated in the years between 1750 and 1765 by Karl Weber by means of underground tunnels. Its name derives from the discovery of a library in the house containing 1,785 carbonized papyrus scrolls, the "Herculaneum papyri".
In 1919, the year that Ferdinando Marinelli opened his own bronze foundry in Rifredi, a new commercial zone on the north side of the city center, Florence was well established as a center for highly skilled industrial metal-casting. Marinelli was born in 1887 near Perugia. He came to Florence as a boy to begin his years of apprenticeship. He trained at the well-known Vignali foundry, which cast the sculptures for many leading artists of the nineteenth century. At the time it was customary for bronze foundries to accept every kind of project, large and small, often connected with architectural fittings. When later Marinelli inserted the word 'artistica' - in the name of his foundry, it would serve to indicate that its products were superior to industrial quality. Marinelli's 'fonderia artistica' would specialize in bronzes by contemporary sculptors as well as meet the thriving demand for art-quality replicas of ancient and Renaissance masterpieces. The nineteenth century had a high regard for the Renaissance skills of replicating sculptures by plaster casts that can be copied in marble or in bronze, preferably with the lost-wax method.
Sale Price: $18,000
Period: 1925
Origin: Italy
Width / Length: 11.25 in. (29 cm)
Depth / Diameter: 30 in. (76 cm)
Height: 35.75 in. (91 cm)
Number of Items Offered: 2
Condition: Excellent
Dealer Reference: ISG107
Dealer Information:
Iconic Snob Galeries
2800 S. Dixie Hwy
West Palm Beach,
FL,
33405
Phone: 561-832-2801
Email: info@iconicsnobgaleries.com