Lot 120: GIOVANNI MARIA BENZONI (ITALIAN, 1809-1873) REBECCA

Signed and dated G.M. Benzoni F Roma A 1871, the signature infilled in red White marble, on grey striated marble column, with rotating top and octagonal foot Figure 155 cm (61 in) Base 74 cm (29 1/4 in) Rebecca is described by Panzetta as Benzoni's masterpiece. In its execution he displays outstanding technical ability as a marble carver, demonstrated by the definition of the layers of fringed silk, the liquid transparency of the veil, and the translucency overall of the marble texture. His realism in the figure carries the skills of marble sculpture beyond the level of the work of his many contemporaries and their studios, for here there is no hint of the secondary hand of a practicien. In his statue of Rebecca, Benzoni has clearly enjoyed the great decorative possibilities of Middle Eastern costume and the form of the face seen through the veil, normally associated with more seductive subjects, while the figure stands with all the composure of a classical godess. It is this combination of the pagan with a religious composition which distinguishes Rebecca within Benzoni's oeuvre. Rebecca (Genesis, chapter 24) was chosen by Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, as a bride for Isaac, because she offered him water at the well outside the city of Nahor. Rebecca was taken to Canaan and when she was about to meet Isaac for the first time she covered her face with a veil in a gesture of modesty. Benzoni who came from a humble background in Bergamo, moved to Rome in 1828 to establish a successful studio. Here Benzoni received commissions from aristocratic families from St. Petersburg to Brazil and was a favoured sculptor of Pope Pius IX. During this time Benzoni was a close friend of his fellow Bergamese, Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), whose opera Anna Bolena of 1830, first carried his fame beyond Italy and was followed by Norma in 1831 and Lucia di Lammermour four years later. Benzoni's bust of the great composer, carved in 1841, is in the Ateneo di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Bergamo. Equally renowned for his religious work and classical subjects, he executed funerary monuments, architectural sculptures for the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, and portrait busts. He showed at the Great Exhibition and represented the Vatican at the International Exhibition in Antwerp a decade later. His appearance in London in 1851 must have enhanced his reputation in England and Rota (op. cit. p.210-11) lists over twenty seven works which he made for English patrons, including the Immacolata and Addolorata for Cardinal Wiseman. Benzoni originally made Rebecca in 1863 for Robert Henry Winttie of London. The composition was repeated on many occasions, most often in smaller versions. A damaged life-size example in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia is incribed "Modesty". Benzoni's impressive neo-classical group The Flight from Pompeii was sold at Sotheby's, New York on 23 May 1990, lot 63. Literature: A. Panzetta, Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell'Ottocento, Turin, 1989, p. 27 G.Rota, Un Artista Begamasco dell'Ottocento Giovianni Maria Benzoni nell Storia dell Scolturna e nell'epiolario famigliore, Bergamo, 1936, pp 210, 406-8, 493 (See colour plate on facing page).