Italian school, ca. 1900

Italian school, ca. 1900.
"Female bust.
Sculpture in carved marble. Green marble pedestal.
Measurements: 50 x 39 x 25 cm; 128 x 36 x 36 x 36 cm.

The bust in bidding masterfully merges the portrait characteristic of Classical Antiquity with a more modern optics typical of the Belle Époque aesthetics, which had already been flourishing for some time around 1900. It represents a lady with a serene look who covers her hair with a veil that, however, allows a glimpse of a braided lock. Her light shirt is decorated with delicate embroidery and is completed under the breast with a floral garland made with great care. Regarding the technical and formal aspects, the sculptor demonstrates a great mastery of the craft, a virtuosity especially evident in the floral garland, worked with chiseling and trepanning. However, where the author's personality shines the strongest -and, at the same time, departs from the classical model- is in the work of textures and qualities, subtly and masterfully achieved. The sculpture rises on a green marble column.

The term Belle Époque designates the period of European history between the last decade of the 19th century and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. It responds to a nostalgic vision that tended to idealize the pre-1914 past as a paradise lost after the brutal trauma of the First World War. With respect to art, it was the time of development of the three pictorial currents that would mark the 20th century: expressionism, fauvism and cubism, as well as modernism. If in painting and large-scale sculpture the avant-garde dominated, in decorative sculpture and objets d'art the modernist influence in all its forms dominated.