From Antiquity, Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839), circa 1800 Flora Farnese Bronze figure H. 61.5 cm (24 ¼ in.) l. 23 cm (9 in.) P. 29 cm (11 ¼ in.) Provenance: Former private collection, Rome, Italy. Comparative bibliographies : F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 217-219. G. Prisco, 'La Più Bella Cosa di Cristianità': i Restauri alla Collezione Farnese di Sculture', in Le Sculture Farnese. Storia e documenti, ed. C. Gasparri, Napoli, 2007, pp. 81-133. R. Frederiksen and E. Marchand, eds, Plaster Casts: Making, Collecting and Displaying from Classical Antiquity to the Present, Berlin and New York, 2010. A. González-Palacios, Luigi Valadier: Splendor in Eighteenth-Century Rome, exh. cat, The Frick Collection, New York, 2018. A bronze figure of Flora Farnese, after the Antique, Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839), circa 1800 Our elegant and graceful bronze figure is based on a 2nd century AD Roman marble copy of an original Greek statue of Aphrodite dating from the 4th century BC. Flore Farnese has captured the imagination of European artists and collectors ever since it was discovered in the first half of the sixteenth century. It is documented in three sketches by Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), who is known to have worked in Rome between 1532 and 1536. Flore, still unrestored - the head, the entire right arm, the left forearm including the hand, the lower part of the legs including the feet and the base, and some parts of the drapery are missing - is recorded by Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) in the courtyard of the Farnese Palace in Rome, in his 1556 publication based on notes taken in Rome six years earlier. (Delle statue antiche, che per tutta Roma, in diversi luoghi e case si veggono, Venice, 1556). The first Renaissance restoration was carried out by Guglielmo della Porta (1515-1577) around 1555 and extended to the head, right arm, left forearm and hand holding a garland of flowers, as well as the feet and some parts of the drapery (Frederiksen & Marchand 2010, p. 396). A drawing in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-T-1955-136), probably by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), illustrates what sculpture looked like in the early 17th century. Flore remained in this state until 1786, when it was transferred to the workshop of Carlo Albacini (1739-after 1807), a pupil of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. Albacini replaced Della Porta's restorations, in particular by replacing the left forearm holding the garland of flowers with a new forearm holding a small bouquet of flowers. Flore remained in Albacini's workshop for fourteen years, until 1800, when it was sent to Naples, where it can still be seen today in the National Archaeological Museum (inv. no. 6409). The bronze here can be dated to between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The fine workmanship of the bronze's surface, which subtly accentuates the different textures of the hair, skin and drapery, as well as the definition of details such as the nails, and the high quality of the modelling, indicate that the bronze was produced in a well-established Roman workshop. Indeed, given the exquisite quality of the casting, it is hard to believe that it could be the product of a workshop other than Valadier's, located in Via del Babuino. Successfully run by the great Roman goldsmith and bronze caster Luigi Valadier (1726-1785) until his death in 1785, the workshop continued under the direction of his son Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839). Renowned for the excellence of its casts, the Valadier workshop produced numerous bronze reductions of famous antique statues, on both large and small scales, which closely compare with today's bronze. Flora Farnese also has many parallels with the bronze head of the Herm of Bacchus made by Luigi Valadier in 1773 and now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Its link with the Valadier workshop is further confirmed by the Registro Generale of 1810, an inventory documenting the contents of the workshop when it belonged to Giuseppe, in which we find two entries relating, in all likelihood, to the Flora Farnese model: "Figura la Flora di creta cotta alta palmi 1⁶⁄₁₂ (Figure of the Flora in terracotta, 1⁶⁄₁₂ palmi high); 4 scudi", and "Figura di Cera la Flora" (Figure of the Flora in wax); 6 scudi" (González-Palacios 2018, pp. 484-485), which can be identified as the model for our bronze. *Information for buyers: Lot from outside the EU: The hammer price is exclusive of VAT. VAT at the reduced rate of 5.5% applies to the hammer price. This VAT is recoverable for French professionals. It is reimbursable for a buyer from outside the EU on presentation of proof of export from the EU or for a professional bidder providing proof of an intra-Community VAT number and a document proving delivery in the Member State. *Information to the buyers : Lot from outside the EU : The hammer price and premium will be VAT excluded. 5.5% VAT will be added to the hammer price and premium. Upon request, this VAT can be refunded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside EU, or to the EU purchaser who will submit his intracommunity VAT number and a proof of shipment to an EU country.