Stone pedestal for Faun in Rosso Antico
probably Italian (Neapolitan) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1901 - 1939
Materials
Stone
Place of origin
Naples
Collection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515128.2
Summary
Stone pedestal engraved 'ANNVS MIRABILIS'/ 'AD MCMXLV' with the Fairhaven monogram and baronial coronet to commemorate the end of the Second World War. Mount for bronze statue of Faun in Rosso Antico, Italian (probably Neapolitan) School, after the antique, c. 1901-39. The base of the cast is inscribed 'MUNIFICINTIA/ D.N DENEDICTI PP XIV/ A.D.MDCCXLVI', an inaccurate transcription of the inscription on the original marble which should read: 'MUNIFICENTIA/ SS.D.N. BENEDICTI.PP.XIV/ A.D. M.D CCXLVI' commemorating the date, 1746, that Pope Benedict XIV gave the statue to the Capitoline Museum.
Full description
The original Faun in Rosso Antico was discovered at Hadrian's Villa in 1736 and given to the Capitoline Museum by Benedict XIV ten years later. It was admired for the close-grained dark-red marble with which is was carved, rarely seen in large sculptures and never seen before in full-size statuary. For a full account see Haskell and Penny 1981, no. 39. The Anglesey cast, which bears no maker's mark, is reputed to have been purchased in Naples by Lord Fairhaven's mother Cara Rogers Broughton (1867-1939) (Roper 1964, p. 65). Naples became a centre for bronze casting after the antique in the 1860s when the National Archaeological Museum began to authorise official reproductions of its celebrated collection items. The leading maker of bronze replicas was the Fonderia Chiurazzi, established in 1870, which assembled one of the richest collections of moulds and offered casts in three patinas: Herculaneum (dark), Pompeii (green), and Rinascimento (gleaming bronze). Casts were marketed to wealthy European tourists - the Chiurazzi emporium was conveniently located opposite the National Museum - and also purchased for public display and for museums. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
probably Italian (Neapolitan) School, sculptor
References
Haskell and Penny 1981: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500 - 1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 213-5, no. 39, fig. 111. Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, p. 65, pl. 46. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 160.