Ragazza con farfalla (Girl with butterfly)

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO CESARE LAPINI (ITALIAN, 1848-1893)
Ragazza con farfalla (Girl with butterfly)
unsigned, on an octangonal base
white statuary marble
47 ½ in. (120.5 cm.) high, overall
13 in. (33 cm.) diameter, the base

Special notice

Specified lots are being stored at Crozier Park Royal (details below) or will be removed from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London, SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. If the lot has been transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection from 12.00pm on the second business day following the sale. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm

Conditions of sale

Lot Essay

Compare similarly modelled subjects of Psyche and butterfly signed by Cesare Lapini sold Waddingtons, Toronto, 16 December 2017, lot 241 and Christie’s, New York, 21 April 2021, lot 75. Professeore Cesare Lapini was born in Florence in 1848 and exhibited in Rome in the 1880s and 1890s. He was celebrated as a sculptor of genre figures and groups and is admired for the grace of his compositions, particularly his daintily posed nymphs which are carved with great skill, frozen in motion as they step forward as if in flight with their arms held aloft, their ethereal and transitory quality symbolised by a butterfly.

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