Lot 73: GIOVANNI DUPRÈ ITALIAN, 1817-1882 L' INNOCENZA (INNOCENCE)

unsigned

white marble, on an original marble column (2)

PROVENANCE

Duprè family collection;
by descent to Paolo Ciardi Duprè;
private collection, Florence
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Francesco Sapori, Scultura Italiana Moderna, Rome, 1949;
Ettore Spalletti, Giovanni Duprè, Rome 2002, pp.37-38
CATALOGUE NOTE

Giovanni Duprè is the most important Tuscan sculptor of the second half of the 19th century and his work is extremely rare at auction. Duprè received the first commission for the statue of L'Innocenza from Giuseppe Tomassi of Livorno. By 1846 the clay model was complete, however, whilst proceeding with work on the plaster, the model was seen by Grand Duke Constantine of Russia who promptly offered the sculptor 1200 scudi for the marble. Tomassi chose not to match this offer, settling for a bust instead. Work on the first marble version began in April 1847 but was not finally finished until 1852. This first marble version was sent to Russia and is now in the National Gallery of Armenia. The original pointed plaster model is preserved in a private collection in Florence.

Spalletti records the present marble version, which is the actual one illustrated in the seminal book on Italian sculpture by Francesco Sapori, and possibly a third version belonging to Stirling Crawford.

The present marble has remained in the sculptor's family collection and must have been unfinished on his death as the back of the girl's hair clearly remains incomplete. Having made a dynamic introduction into the artistic world with the figure of The Dying Abel - the prime version of which was also sent to Russia - Duprè's Innocenza marks a small group of works in which he shows the conventional influence of Lorenzo Bartolini. As his style developed in later years he looked back on these works as a part of a seperate development from his most innovative models; a period, as he reflected later in life, of 'three years of artistic temptation, when my spirit without faith and full of doubt was well-nigh smothered'. Today this criticism seems harsh and the Innocenza and Purità can be appreciated as part the late Neo-classical tradition in Italian sculpture which continued to be influential, in this Nazarene phase, on the development of sculpture in France and England in particular.

RELATED LITERATURE Frieze, pp.53-54

figure: 162cm., 63 3/4 in. base: 91cm., 35 7/8 in.