An Italian patinated bronze and various marble three-quarter-length bust, entitled 'The Minstrel'
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… 顯示更多 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
An Italian patinated bronze and various marble three-quarter-length bust, entitled 'The Minstrel'

BY PIETRO CALVI, MILAN, CIRCA 1883

細節
An Italian patinated bronze and various marble three-quarter-length bust, entitled 'The Minstrel'
By Pietro Calvi, Milan, Circa 1883
The circular spreading grey marble base signed CALVI, MILANO
35½ in. (90 cm.) high
來源
Anonymous sale, Phillips London, 5 June 1990, lot 205.
注意事項
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

Pietrò Calvi (d. 1884) studied at the Milan Academy and later under the sculptor Giovanni Seleroni. Working in both marble and bronze and often combining the two to very good effect, Calvi frequently took his subjects from the arts, particularly from Shakespeare and the opera. He sculpted figures which now decorate Milan Cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and in 1877 presented five busts to the city of Naples - Primavera, Mariuccia, Othello, Selika and Gennaro.

One of Calvi's final creations, The Minstrel, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1883, treats a theme of huge popular appeal during the latter half of the 19th century. Minstrel theatrical entertainment had originated and developed in the U.S. in the first half of the century, and consisted of songs, dances, and comic repartee typically performed by white actors made up as blacks. The minstrel show probably evolved from two types of entertainment popular in America before 1830: the impersonation of blacks given by white actors between acts of plays or during circuses; and the performances of black musicians who sang, with banjo accompaniment, in city streets. After the American Civil War, black entertainers - ironically also in blackface make-up - became more prominent than before and the minstrel show became the leading vehicle for popular music in the U.S., its banjo music influencing the development of ragtime and its clog-dancing, the evolution of tap dance.