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Lot Essay
The Florentine craftsman Pietro Paulo Caproni (1862 -1928) was founder of PP Caproni & Brother, Boston, Massachusetts, manufacturers of museum quality, plaster reproductions of classical statues. The company was started in 1896 by Pietro and Emilio Caproni and sold in 1927.They supplied casts to important institutions including the Portland Art Museum, Oregon and the William Battle Collection at the University of Texas.
The original Minerva is first recorded in a set of engravings of the Gustiniani collection in 1631 it was sold to Lucien Bonaparte in 1805, and was subsequently sold in 1817 to Pope Pius VII who placed in the Vatican. The statue has always been highly regarded and was admired by Canova. It is now catalogued as an Antonine adaptation of a bronze original of the fourth century B.C.
The original Minerva is first recorded in a set of engravings of the Gustiniani collection in 1631 it was sold to Lucien Bonaparte in 1805, and was subsequently sold in 1817 to Pope Pius VII who placed in the Vatican. The statue has always been highly regarded and was admired by Canova. It is now catalogued as an Antonine adaptation of a bronze original of the fourth century B.C.