Lot Essay
Though trained in Naples under Angelini, Giovanni Battista Amendola (d. 1887) is probably best known in a British context for the sculptures he created after the paintings of his fellow artists at the Royal Academy where he was a regular exhibitor. Through his close friendship with Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema he was introduced to Lord Frederick Leighton, whose 1882 oil-on-canvas entitled Wedded became the subject of Amendola's most celebrated work. An example of this model is illustrated in A. Panzetta, Dizionario degli scultori Italiani dell'ottocento, 1989, p. 115, pl. 3.