Neapolitan school. Grand Tour, late nineteenth century.

Neapolitan school. Grand Tour, late nineteenth century.
"Neapolitan fisherman".
Patinated bronze.
Chiurazzi and Fills- S. de Angelis and Fils Foundeurs.
It shows wear.
Measurements: 53 x 40 x 27 cm.

The piece represents a seated fisherman, dressed in a traditional hat and holding a basket for his catch, which reinforces its link with everyday life and manual labor associated with the sea. His relaxed posture, with a customary air, makes him both a tribute to the humble figure of the fisherman and an evocation of Greco-Roman models, where the representation of trades was common in small and medium-sized sculpture.

This type of work was aimed at the Grand Tour market, a cultural phenomenon in which European aristocrats and travelers acquired pieces that evoked the classical world and Italian identity, functioning as erudite and decorative souvenirs.

The sculpture combines academic rigor in anatomical details with a narrative and popular character, becoming a characteristic example of the nineteenth-century taste for the classic reinterpreted with contemporary sensibility.

The term "Grand Tour", which first appeared in Richard Lassels' "The Voyage d'Italie", was used to define the long journey through Europe, especially Italy, that young British aristocrats used to undertake from the 17th century onwards, but especially throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The purpose of the trip was for the young men to experience the art and culture of France and Italy, to admire classical art at first hand, to learn or improve their language skills, and to establish contacts and relationships with the cultural and political elites of these countries. Often, travelers were looking for pieces with which to start their own art collections, objects to take back to their places of residence as souvenirs. For this reason, workshops specialized in replicating Roman pieces, both in bronze and marble, sprang up, some of which acquired a great reputation.