Giovan Battista Amendola (1848-1887) studied in Naples under Angelini and Solari. He subsequently moved to Rome and Paris, and in 1879 to England where he remained until 1884. He exhibited regularly in Naples and at the Royal Academy from 1879 to 1886. He moved to England as a result of his friendship with Alma Tadema, and in 1884 the celebrated painter exhibited a fine portrait of Amendola working on a silver statuette of Mrs Alma-Tadema, at the Grosvenor Gallery. In fact, Amendola exhibited a sculpture of Lawrence Alma-Tadema and the figurine of Mrs Alma Tadema at the Royal Academy in 1879.
Probably as a result of his close relationship with Alma Tadema Amendola met Frederic Leighton, and swiftly became one of his protégés. Leighton recommended Amendola to Stewart Hodgson as: "full of talent and his statuettes are simply charming - Moreover he is (a) capital good fellow whom I like vastly" (Ormond, op. cit., p. 117). There are no records of a portrait of Leighton by Amendola, but the present bronze may well have been created on the instigation of Leighton. The subject matter is taken from Leighton's painting Wedded executed circa 1881-2, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1882 and acquired that year by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Amendola has abstracted the figures of the lovers from their setting and has created a finely textured romantic work. He has compensated for the monochrome material by working the surface in a variety of finely chased patterns, so that the light falls across the bronze in chromatic shades, and the smooth surfaces of the lovers' limbs contrast poignantly with their rich Classical robes. One other cast of this work is illustrated in Panzetta (op. cit.), the present rare bronze on its handsome mahogany pedestal stands as an evocative three-dimensional image of the romantic idealism favoured by Leighton and his followers.