Giuseppe Maria MAZZUOLI (Siena, 1727 - ?, 1781) Allegories of Awakening or Knowledge and Allegory of Sleep or Innocence Pair of original terracotta statuettes Signed with initials and dated on the front of the terrace "M.M INV. 17..." and dated and signed with the initials "1763 IOS M M SENE. INV" Height: 31.5 cm for L'Eveil and 34.5 cm for Le Sommeil (Accidents, missing parts and restorations) Allegory of Awakening or Knowledge and Allegory of Sleep or Innocence, terracottas, a pair, signed and dated, by G. M. Mazzuoli H. 12,40 and 13,58 in. Provenance: Private collection, Paris Bibliography: related : Ursula Schlegel, "Some Statuettes of Giuseppe Mazzuoli", The Burlington Magazine, 109, no. 772, July 1967, pp. 386-395 Alessandro Angelini, "Giuseppe Mazzuoli, la bottega dei fratelli e la committenza della famiglia De' Vecchi", Prospettiva, 79.1995, p. 78-100 Andrea Bacchi, Stefano Pierguidi, Bernini e gli allievi: Giuliano Finelli, Andrea Bolgi, Francesco Mochi, François Duquesnoy, Ercole Ferrata, Antonio Raggi, Giuseppe Mazzuoli, Florence, 2008 Stefano Santangelo, L'Opera di Giuseppe Mazzuoli. Dottorato di Ricerca in Storia dell'Arte (Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata), doctoral thesis, 2010 Related work : Giuseppe Mazzuoli, Justice, circa (1713-1719), marble figure adorning the funerary monument of Stefano and Lazzaro Pallavicini, church of San Francesco a Ripa, Rome Depicting two young women, one accompanied by a cockerel and leaning on a book, the other draped lightly over a sleeping child, these rare terracotta "bozzetti" are modelled with the vigour and spontaneity of early sketches that were quickly sketched out. They are undoubtedly allegorical projects illustrating the themes of knowledge or enlightenment versus sleep or innocence. In his iconological dictionary, Cesare Ripa tells us about the significance of the association between the cockerel and the book: awakening through knowledge. Conversely, the other young woman seems to be protecting the innocence and trusting sleep of the newborn child. Here we find the characteristics of the style of the sculptor Giuseppe Mazzuoli and the typology of allegorical figures of late Baroque Rome. Born in Volterra, Giuseppe Mazzuoli made a major career for himself in Rome at the end of the 17th century, during the great papal building projects. He worked on a number of funerary monuments, sculpting this type of allegory. Although we have not been able to find the exact details of these two fine projects, the figure of Knowledge is undoubtedly related to the allegory of Justice sculpted by Mazzuoli between 1713 and 1719 for the funerary monument of Stefano and Lazzaro Pallavicini in the Roman church of San Francesco in Ripa. Although the attributes differ, with the sword of justice replacing the cockerel and the book, the overall composition and attitude of the young woman are exactly the same, and it is easy to imagine in the sculptor's creative process the interchangeable nature of such figures. The son of Dionisio Mazzuoli and brother of Giovanni Antonio Mazzuoli, whose pupil he also was, Giuseppe Mazzuoli belonged to an important dynasty of Italian artists. After training with Giovanni Antonio Mazzuoli in Siena, he left the family home for Rome to further his education. During this initiatory stay, he joined the Société des Virtuoses in 1675 and the Académie Saint-Luc in 1679. He worked with the great masters of the Roman Baroque, notably Bernini for the tomb of Alexander VII and Ercole Ferrata for the funerary monument of Pope Clement X. He was also one of the sculptors chosen by Pope Clement XI and Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili to create the sculptures of the apostles in the niches in the nave of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. An emulator and later instigator of the Baroque aesthetic, he eventually adopted a calmer style. We would like to thank Professor Alessandro Angelini for kindly confirming the authenticity of these two terracottas based on photographs in an email dated 19 February 2026.