Saturday, June 6, 2020

Imitations and Copies of Classical Sculpture - I

attributed to Caius Gabriel Cibber
Father Time with Putto
(supporting a sundial)
ca. 1688
limestone
National Trust, Belton House, Lincolnshire

attributed to Caius Gabriel Cibber
Father Time with Putto
(supporting a sundial)
ca. 1688
limestone
National Trust, Belton House, Lincolnshire

attributed to Caius Gabriel Cibber
Father Time with Putto
(supporting a sundial)
ca. 1688
limestone
National Trust, Belton House, Lincolnshire

workshop of Orazio Marinali
Bust of a Philosopher
ca. 1680
marble
National Trust, Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire

Anonymous Italian Artist
Head of the Farnese Hercules
(copy after the antique)
18th century
marble
National Trust, Ickworth House, Suffolk

Anonymous Italian Artist
Head of the Farnese Hercules (detail)
(copy after the antique)
18th century
marble
National Trust, Ickworth House, Suffolk

Anonymous Italian Artist
The Apollino
(life-size copy after the antique)
18th century
marble
National Trust, Mount Stewart, County Down, Northern Ireland

"The Apollino is recorded as in the Villa Medici in Rome in 1704 by Maffei in his notes to Domenico de Rossi's anthology of plates. It is probably identical with the Medici Apollo recorded in December 1684 as amongst those statues of which the French Academy had had casts made and of which a copy was carved by Frémery (now lost or unidentified). It was taken to Florence in 1769-70 with the Niobe Group, the decision to consign it to the care of the restorer Spinazzi was made by the end of 1770, and in November of the following year it was placed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi. It was removed to Palermo in September 1800 together with other treasures to escape the French, but was returned in February 1803. It was damaged in 1840 when a painting fell on it."

"The early history of the Apollino is obscure, but it is clear that it quickly increased in popularity in the eighteenth century. By 1722 the Richardsons could call it 'famous' and although they disliked the way it had been restored they admired 'the sweep, and the whole Contour of the Body'. Later in the century it was one of the most highly praised and, as Winckelmann noted, one of the most frequently copied antique statues.  . . .  James Adam considered the Apollino to be 'in the most agreeable attitude that could be confined in the niche.'  Although Lagrenée was keen that Lamarie, who was copying the damaged cast in the French Academy in Rome in 1781, should 'correct' the original figure from nature, he made no criticism of the antique, and the statue's gradual fall from popular favour during the last century was not prepared for in the eighteenth."

– Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (Yale University Press, 1981)

Anonymous Italian Artist
Bust of Emperor Lucius Verus
(copy after the antique)
18th century
marble
National Trust, Ickworth House, Suffolk

Anonymous Italian Artist
Bust of Emperor Lucius Verus (detail)
(copy after the antique)
18th century
marble
National Trust, Ickworth House, Suffolk

John Cheere
Life-Size Copy of the Capitoline Antinous
(after an original in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
before 1787
painted lead
National Trust, Saltram House, Devon

John Cheere
Life-Size Copy of an Antique Vestal Virgin
(after an original in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
before 1787
painted lead
National Trust, Saltram House, Devon

John Cheere
Life-Size Copy of an Antique Mercury
(after an original in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
before 1787
painted lead
National Trust, Saltram House, Devon

John Cheere
Life-Size Copy of the Capitoline Isis
(after an original in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
before 1787
painted lead
National Trust, Saltram House, Devon

John Flaxman
Cephalus and Aurora
1789-90
marble statue group
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool

Anonymous Italian Artist after Baccio Bandinelli
Classical Youth
19th century
marble statue
Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland