Lot 61: GIOVANNI CINISELLI

GIOVANNI CINISELLI ITALIAN 1832-1883 AURORA signed: G. CINISELLI ROMA. white marble on white and gilt wood column figure: 110cm., 43 3/8 in. column: 100cm., 39 3/8 in.

Ciniselli represents Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, holding a wreath of flowers in one hand and scattering them with the other. Flowers are a typical attribute of Aurora, who was described by Homer as being 'rosy-fingered.' The waking child at her feet is a further indication of the identification of the figure. The present marble strongly evokes eighteenth-century sculpture, particularly with its impressive gilt fluted column adorned with fictive garlands. A comparable sculpture of a woman reading a letter, signed by Ciniselli, is in the Manchester Central Library.

Giovanni Ciniselli was born in Novate, Milan, in 1832. He studied at the Accademia di Brera under the tutorage of the sculptors Antonio Labus, Antonio Gallo and Pietro Magni. Ciniselli produced a number of allegorical groups, as well as public monuments, including his statue of Count Welserheim in Vienna, and his striking herm bust of Savonarola on the Pincio Hill in Rome. He received a medal at the Melbourne Exhibition of 1881.

RELATED LITERATURE
A. Panzetta, Nuovo dizionario degli scultori Italiani dell'ottocento e del primo novecento da Antonio Canova ad Arturo Martini, Turin, 2003, p. 220