A rare Naples, Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea biscuit group of a river god, circa 1790

Modelled by Filippo Tagliolini, leaning on his right arm which is perched on an urn, a wreath made of bulrush on his head, his right arm raised, 18cm high (small losses)

Provenance:
Italian private collection

The model is reminiscent of the sculptures of the famous Fontana dei quattro fiumi in the Piazza Navona in Rome, or even the Fontana di Sebeto in Naples, but is more likely based on an ancient source, perhaps on the series of the four river gods made in the Roman era, of which one, representing Dio Nio, rediscovered in 1734, can be found in Naples, on the Largo Corpo. Of that figure a Naples, Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea figure exists in the Museo di San Martino, which was published by Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, Tagliolini e la Porcellana di Napoli (1988), cat.no. 59. Another possibility would be affreschi, for example the Roman fresco found in Pompei (Fresco in the Fourth Pompeian Style, depicting the personification of the Sarnus River from a wall in the House of the Vestals at Pompei, 50-79 AD) now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

For further reading on the iconography of river gods see: Claudia Lazzaro River gods: personifying nature in sixteenth-century Italy, published in Renaissance Studies, Vol 25 (February 2011), pp. 70-94.