Lot 348: A CARVED MARBLE BUST OF FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER

A CARVED MARBLE BUST OF FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER
CIRCLE OF BARTOLOMEO CAVACEPPI (1716-1799), LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
On an integrally carved circular socle; areas of the surface repolished
24½ in. (62.3 cm.) overall

Working by reproducing antique prototypes for the prestigious collections of the great sovereigns of the period - including Catherine the Great of Russia and Gustave III of Sweden - Bartolomeo Cavaceppi was renowned for his work in the study, reproduction and restoration of antique sculpture. He clearly demonstrated this in his work for Duke Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau at Schloss Wörlitz (for a discussion on the nature of Cavaceppi's work at Schloss Wörlitz please see note to lot 350) where he produced a series of marble busts of emperors, mythological figures as well as a variant of the bust offered here.

Annia Galeria Faustina was the daughter of Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder, as well as a great-niece to Hadrian. For a time she was engaged to Lucius Verus, however when the father of Antoninus Pius died, Hadrian, the reigning emperor, adopted him as his son and he eventually became Hadrian's successor. Faustina's father ended the engagement between his daughter and Lucius Verus and then arranged her betrothal to her maternal cousin Marcus Aurelius. When Antoninus Pius died in March 161AD, her husband and Lucius Verus succeeded her father's throne and ruled the empire as co-ruler Roman Emperors. Contemporary literature was not kind to Faustina and represented her as a scurrilous personality recalling stories of her adulterous encounters with sailors and gladiators and going as far as to suggest that her son Commodus was the son of one such union.