AN ITALIAN BRONZE BUST OF A NEAPOLITAN GIRL, cast from a model by Vincenzo Gemito, her head turned sharply to the left, her hair arranged in a chignon, truncated at the shoulders and supported all'antica on two dolphins and a scalloped mount, on turned bronze socle, signed on the reverse V. Gemito, and with FONDERIA GEMITO NAPOLI stamp, early 20th Century

The present bust of a girl from Naples relates in part to the early 1880's when Gemito's work concentrated on the realistic 'genre' portraiture of fisherfolk and peasants. However, here the sitter is distanced by strong references to Antique archtetypes. The immutable profile, the firm and undulating lines of her shoulders, neck and hair combined with the twin dolphin supports create an enduring and Olympian image. A bronze bust of a Neapolitan Maiden in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan (op. cit.), dated there to 1913, shows an amost identical model. However, the shoulders and arms are extended to comprise the breasts, and terminate in a simple flat base. A finely chased lost wax cast, this bronze reflects the noble and sensuous Mediterranean classicism characteristic of Gemito's most powerful and idiosyncratic work.