AN ITALIAN BRONZE AND MARBLE BUST ENTITLED 'SELIKA', by Pietrò Calvi, wearing an elaborate ostrich-feather head-dress and with a cloak draped about her, her head tilted backwards with her eyes looking down, wearing earrings and a necklace, arms folded and holding a leafy twig in her right hand, signed to the reverse CALVI 1874 MILANO and on a square chamfered waisted red marble socle (weathered and stained, chips, lacking one earring) circa 1874

Property from the Collection of the late SIR ROBERT ABDY

Details

AN ITALIAN BRONZE AND MARBLE BUST ENTITLED 'SELIKA', by Pietrò Calvi, wearing an elaborate ostrich-feather head-dress and with a cloak draped about her, her head tilted backwards with her eyes looking down, wearing earrings and a necklace, arms folded and holding a leafy twig in her right hand, signed to the reverse CALVI 1874 MILANO and on a square chamfered waisted red marble socle (weathered and stained, chips, lacking one earring) circa 1874
37in. (94cm.) high

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Michael Forrest, Art Bronzes, Schiffer, Pennsylvania, 1988.

Lot Essay

See lot 245 for a footnote to Pietrò Calvi.

Selika, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1872 (No.1525) is the prima donna from L'Africaine, the five act opera by Meyerbeer, first performed in 1865. Formerly an African princess, she is now a slave and is captured and together with another slave Nelusko is taken back to Portugal by Vasco de Gama. In a story full of intrigue, Selika ends up marrying Vasco in a bid to save his life, but at the marriage ceremony Vasco is reunited with his lover Inez and Selika, so moved by the two together, kills herself by inhaling the scent of the deadly flowers of the Mancinilla, which here she holds in her hand.

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