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Lot Essay
A student of the Accademia in Rome under the direction of Piètro Tenerani (a pupil of Thorvaldsen), Lombardi established a celebrated career producing large religious and allegorical subjects. Much like the present lot, the artist heavily favoured individual biblical female subjects, including Ruth, Susanna, Deborah, and Rebecca. The present model has been previously been mistakenly titled 'Ruth', as published in A. Panzetta, Dizionario Degli Scultori Italiani dell'Ottocento e del Primo Novecento, 1994, no. 474, p. 111. However, recent scholarship indicates that this forlorn female figure is actually a depiction of Abishag of Shunem (Fedrigolli, op. cit., p. 158.).
Sunammita (young woman from Sunem) or 'Bride of Songs', as she is titled by Lombardi, was selected as the most beautiful woman in the land to be the servant of King David in his old age, assisting in keeping him warm when he could not keep warm himself. Abishag was cherished by the King, and when he died Adonijah, David's eldest surviving son, requested permission from the newly crowned king Solomon to marry her. Viewing the proposal as a threat-- for it was perceived that having relations with the former king's concubine was a veiled method of proclaiming oneself king-- Solomon refuses and condemns Adonijah to death.
Here Lombardi depicts Sunamitta after the death of King David at a moment when her destiny is being decided for her. She is either to become the Adonijah's wife or Solomon's concubine. The artist has masterfully captured the character's fragile state where one can sense both her resignation and her grief. First modelled in 1865, another example dated 1874 was sold Sotheby's, London, 20 March 1992, lot 151. The gesso modello is in the Museo Civici, Brescia (inv. 165, Fedrigolli, op. cit., p. 67.).
Sunammita (young woman from Sunem) or 'Bride of Songs', as she is titled by Lombardi, was selected as the most beautiful woman in the land to be the servant of King David in his old age, assisting in keeping him warm when he could not keep warm himself. Abishag was cherished by the King, and when he died Adonijah, David's eldest surviving son, requested permission from the newly crowned king Solomon to marry her. Viewing the proposal as a threat-- for it was perceived that having relations with the former king's concubine was a veiled method of proclaiming oneself king-- Solomon refuses and condemns Adonijah to death.
Here Lombardi depicts Sunamitta after the death of King David at a moment when her destiny is being decided for her. She is either to become the Adonijah's wife or Solomon's concubine. The artist has masterfully captured the character's fragile state where one can sense both her resignation and her grief. First modelled in 1865, another example dated 1874 was sold Sotheby's, London, 20 March 1992, lot 151. The gesso modello is in the Museo Civici, Brescia (inv. 165, Fedrigolli, op. cit., p. 67.).