Lot 426: A PLASTER RELIEF OF PAOLO AND FRANCESCA

A PLASTER RELIEF OF PAOLO AND FRANCESCA
BY RICHARD WESTMACOTT THE YOUNGER (1799-1872), SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The frame inscribed 'PAOLO E FRANCESCA, Que'duo che insieme vanno, E pajon si al vento esser legieri, Nulla speranza li conforta mai, Non che di posa, ma di minor pena, Dante Inferno Canto 5'
54¼ in, (138 cm.) high; 36¼ in. (192 cm.) wide

R, Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculpture 1660-1851, New Revised Edition, pp.428-9.

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The artist's father, Sir Richard Westmacott (d. 1856) executed a version of Paolo and Francesca for the Marquess of Landsdowne in 1837. The present relief reflects Richard's close affinities with his father's work and recalls Sir Richard's figures of Venus and Apollo in he Dream of Horace, 1823. The tragic lovers Paolo Malatesa and Francesca da Rimini are derived from Dante's Divine Comedy.