Lot 167: AN ITALIAN TERRACOTTA GROUP OF A GAUL ABDUCTING THE DAUGHTER OF BRASIUS, ATTRIBUTED TO LUIGI ACQUISTI (1745-1823) LATE 18TH CENTURY, BOLOGNA

the partially draped male figure lifting up the writhing daughter of Brasius and carrying her away, a tree stump beside him, naturalistic base.

Height 26 7/8 in. 68 cm. Height 26 7/8in.; 68 cm.

<P>Late 18th Century, Bologna</P>

RELATED LITERATURE
E. Riccomini, Scultura Bolognese de Settecento (exh.cat.), December 12, 1965-January 12, 1966, Bologna, Museo Civico

Allgemeinen Künstler Lexikon der bildenden aller zeiten und volker, vol. I, Liepzig, 1983

Luigi Antonio Acquisti studied in Bologna under the sculptors Carlo Bianconi and Filippo Balugani. In 1788 he was known to have made a sculpture of A Gaul Abducting the Daughter of Brasius (some identify the sculpture as The Rape of the Sabines) in stucco for the Palazzo Communale in S. Giovanni in Persiceto (outside of Bologna), according to Thieme-Becker. While we know little of Acquisti's preparatory methods or work in a smaller scale, the present piece seems to be a finished model and therefore may have been commissioned by a private patron after the monumental work.

This terracotta sculpture exhibits a distinctive, Baroque drapery style typical of Acquisti's work in of the 1780s in Bologna. The stucco relief of Caritas in S. Maria della Vita (Riccomini, op.cit., no.128) and the stucco figure of Isaiah for the Santuario del Crocifisso (Riccomini, op.cit., no.127) have the same voluminous drapery with multiple folds framing the figures and with rounded edges accentuated with areas of gathered, undulating drapery. Furthermore, the classical facial features and square jaws and broad foreheads are comparable.

In 1790 Acquisti went to Rome where he became a member of the Accademia di S. Luca in 1803. He was commissioned to create, among other works, sculpture of Vecchia Legge for the facade of the Milan Cathedral, four reliefs for the Arco della Pace in Milan in 1812, Mars and Venus for the Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo on Lake Como and statues in the Palazzo Braschi, Rome. He eventually returned to Bologna, where he continued to work in the neoclassical style which he developed in Rome, until the end of his life in 1823.