Emanuele Caroni (Italian, b. 1826)
Emanuele Caroni (Italian, b. 1826)
Emanuele Caroni (Italian, b. 1826)
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Emanuele Caroni (Italian, b. 1826)
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Please note this lot will be moved to Christie’s F… Read more
Emanuele Caroni (Italian, b. 1826)

Lover's Net

Details
Emanuele Caroni (Italian, b. 1826)
Lover's Net
signed 'Profre. E. Caroni. Firenze. 1889.' (on the base)
marble
59 ¼ in. (150.5 cm.) high
Executed circa 1889.
Special notice
Please note this lot will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) at 5pm on the last day of the sale. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services. Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information. This sheet is available from the Bidder Registration staff, Purchaser Payments or the Packing Desk and will be sent with your invoice.

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Laura Mathis
Laura Mathis

Lot Essay


Caroni was born in Rancate in 1826, studied first in Milan under Vincenzo Vela, and then in Florence with Lorenzo Bartolini, where he eventually opened a studio. He received the Cavaliere della Corona d'Italia, and participated in a number of international exhibitions, most notably the Paris exhibitions of 1867, where he won a gold medal for Ofelia, and 1889 with Message d’amour. At the Centenial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, he exhibited The Telegram of Love and L'Africaine. The Monument to Columbus, erected in 1876 in Philadelphia's Marconi Plaza, is attributed to Caroni.
Caroni might have been inspired to create this composition by a contemporary, Raimondo Pereda (1840–1915) who exhibited, alongside works by Caroni at the Philadelphia exhibition, a marble also entitled Loves Net. Pereda’s work shows cupid trapping Venus in his net, whereas her, with playful charm, Caroni reverses the initiator by showing Venus trapping cupid, who looks none too happy to have been caught. The allusion is to a mythological scene when Venus and Mars are caught in a net in their adulterous liaison by Venus’ husband Vulcan. In turn, the playfulness of Venus disarming cupid, references French rococo ideals, popular in romantic sculpture of the period.

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