A Neapolitan patinated bronze model of Narcissus

A Neapolitan patinated bronze model of Narcissus, cast after the Antique almost certainly by Chiurazzi & Sons, late 19th century, portrayed standing and nude but for sandals, an animal skin slung over his left shoulder, on a circular waisted socle with stylised foliate cast edging

28.5cm high

CATALOGUE NOTES:

The Narcissus, held at the Museo Nazionale, Naples was discovered as recently as 1862 but was very quickly acclaimed as a masterpiece. Haskell and Penny stated that 'It was the last antique statue to be discovered in Italy which enjoyed enormous fame...'. (Taste and the Antique, Yale University Press, 1981). Indeed the secretary of the Naples Museum maintained that it was the most beautiful bronze ever to have been discovered at Pompeii. By the turn of the century, revised opinion suggested that the bronze represented Dionysus, but it is still generally known as the Narcissus