Lot 91: GIROLAMO MASINI (ITALIAN, 1840-C.1893) CLEOPATRA SEATED ON A LION

Signed and dated G Masini Fect. 1875, Roma White marble and inscribed Cleopatra on the front edge Height 123 cm (48 1/2 in) Width 94 cm (37 in) Depth 63 cm (24 3/4 in) Masini was a versatile sculptor, equally skilled in grand subject compositions and in public monuments. After four years at the Accademia in Florence under Aristodemo Costoli, he won a three year scholarship to Rome in 1866. His two greatest public commissions are the statue of Cola da Rienzi (1870) in Rome and the statue of Adelaide Cairoli Bono (1875) in Groppello. He excelled in his interpretations of famous historical heroines, beginning with Pia dei Tolomei (1867) and Fabiola (1868) and continuing with his magnificent Cleopatra. In these female figures Masini manages to instil the elegance and grace of his high artistic temperament and his delicate sculptural feeling; they are executed with an unsurpassed skill of modelling which gives them a life of their own (see V. Vicario op. cit., p.431). Masini exhibited a Cleopatra at the Esposizione di Belle Arti in Rome in 1883 and is reputed to have shown it a year earlier at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Another version, undated, is in the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, purchased in Rome in 1893. Literature: Esposizione di belle Arti in Roma 1883 catalogo Generale Ufficiale, Rome 1883, p.122 no.58, illus p.162 A Panzetta, Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell'Ottocento, Turin, 1989, p.104 V. Vicario, Gli Scultori Italiani dal Neoclassicismo al Liberty, Lodi, 1990, pp431-3.