Lot 62: Ercole Rosa , Italian 1846-1893 Luce white marble, raised on a circular stepped white marble base

signed E. Rosa . white marble, raised on a circular stepped white marble base

measurements height 5 ft. 6 3/4 in. alternate measurements 169.5 cm

Alfonso Panzetta, Dizionario degli Scultori italiani, vol. II, Adarte, 2003, pl. 1616

Ercole Rosa was born into a poor family in the Marche region of Italy. His father was a stone-cutter who supplemented his income by fashioning crib figures out of terracotta. Rosa's first experience of sculpture was in helping his father at this work. He moved to Rome to study sculpture in 1858, and in 1874 won the competition for the commission of a monument to the Cairoli brothers. With the completion of this monument Rosa became a leading figure in the Roman art world, and his reputation spread across Italy resulting in various important commissions, including the monument to Vittorio Emanuele Secondo in the Piazza del Duomo, Milan.

His work combined Italian verismo techniques with Romanticism. In his early days of study, he made copies after the Antique and was possessed of what Vicario has called "an extraordinary technical ability," evident in the present model with its layers of net from which Cupid struggles to free himself. As well as the large-scale public sculpture, Rosa was well-known for his allegorical, genre, and portrait subjects.