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Lot Essay
Francesco Righetti was a sculptor, silversmith and bronze founder who had his training under Luigi Valadier (1726-1785). Valadier was, from 1779, in charge of restoration of the bronzes in the papal collections, and was also entrusted with the collection of antique cameos. Righetti would later (1805) succeed Valadier as superintendent of the Vatican foundries, but by that time his reputation as one of the most talented sculptors, specialising in works after the antique, was well-established. In 1781 he had received a commission for a set of busts from the English banker Henry Hope, and in 1786 Catherine the Great of Russia commissioned a marble and bronze group of Apollo and the Muses after antique sculptures in the Museo Pio-Clementino, Rome.
By 1794, Righetti's success was such that he produced a catalogue which listed 46 busts, 25 groups and 78 single figures he was able to cast in bronze for clients wishing to have a souvenir of works of art they had seen while in Italy (reproduced in Haskell and Penny, op. cit., p. 343). These could be executed in a variety of sizes and with different patinations depending on the tastes of the individual.
The present lot can be confidently attributed to Francesco Righetti (Rome, 1749-1819) on the basis of a stylistic comparison with nearly identical figures which appear on a candelabrum illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Fasto Romano, Rome, 1991, p. 225, cat. 195., by the same bronze maker, which are dated 1792. The female figures are also repeated on a candelabrum executed circa 1801-1802 for San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, illustrated, González-Palacios, Il Tempio dei Principe, Vol. II, p. 262, pl. 525.
By 1794, Righetti's success was such that he produced a catalogue which listed 46 busts, 25 groups and 78 single figures he was able to cast in bronze for clients wishing to have a souvenir of works of art they had seen while in Italy (reproduced in Haskell and Penny, op. cit., p. 343). These could be executed in a variety of sizes and with different patinations depending on the tastes of the individual.
The present lot can be confidently attributed to Francesco Righetti (Rome, 1749-1819) on the basis of a stylistic comparison with nearly identical figures which appear on a candelabrum illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Fasto Romano, Rome, 1991, p. 225, cat. 195., by the same bronze maker, which are dated 1792. The female figures are also repeated on a candelabrum executed circa 1801-1802 for San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, illustrated, González-Palacios, Il Tempio dei Principe, Vol. II, p. 262, pl. 525.