19th century Florentine workshop following Pompeian models

19th century Florentine workshop following Pompeian models.
"Putto with dolphin". Model inspired by a sculpture made for a fountain in the Villa Medici in Careggi by Andrea del Verrocchio in 1465.
Bronze statuette with reddish brown patina.
Signed Sommer Napoli.
It shows wear of the patina and restoration of the left wing.
Measurements: 21 cm (height).

The theme of the putto with dolphin goes back to the Renaissance period when consecrated artists like Donatello or Andrea del Verrochio introduced it in their creations. Among them were the statues integrated in baptismal fonts (such as the work "Spiritello danzante" which is part of the baptismal font of the Baptistery of Siena, 1429) or in fountains (such as the statue "Putto with dolphin" by Andrea del Verrocchio which was originally intended to be part of the fountain installed in Villa Careggi, commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici, but which is finally preserved today in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence). Taking as a clear source of inspiration these Renaissance statues (in turn influenced by Pompeian models), the Florentine school of the nineteenth century was responsible for adapting them to new forms such as the one we now bid, in which the care of the chiseling suggests that it is indeed a nineteenth-century example influenced by Renaissance models. As in Verrochio's example, our piece shows a winged putto of juvenile style holding a stylized dolphin on his right shoulder. The animal takes the form of a large fish following the usual mode of representation of the time.