Description
Spinario Boy with Thorn
From our Bronze Sculpture collection, we are pleased to offer this Italian Bronze Figure of Spinario also known as Boy with Thorn and Fedele. The Bronze sculpture is beautifully cast raised upon a black marble base with white specs modelled as The Boy With The Thorn after the antique. The figure depicts a boy with long draped hair seated trying to pick a thorn from his foot. The figure would have been available to purchase by young scholars during their partake in the grand tour around Europe. The Italian Bronze Figure of Spinario, the boy with thorn dates to the second half to the 19th century circa 1870.
Spinario – Boy with Thorn
is a story originally cast as the Roman bronze statue known as Fedele, or Spinario. The statue portrays a young boy sitting and concentrating on removing a thorn from his foot. This imagery has resonated with audiences for centuries and has been interpreted in various ways depending on the context in which it is presented. The statue is thought to have been created in the Hellenistic or Roman period, symbolising naturalism and human introspection. Since the original many copies have been made, in the early Renaissance, it was celebrated through being one of the first Roman sculptures to be copied. There are bronze reductions by Severo da Ravenna and Jacopo Buonaccolsi (L’Antico). Buonaccolsi made a copy for Isabella d’Este around 1501 that is now in the Galleria Estense, Modena. In 1500, Antonello Gagini made a full-size variant for a fountain in Messina which is believed to be the bronze version that now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In the sixteenth century, bronze copies made suitably magnificent ambassadorial gifts to the King of France and the King of Spain. During the grand tour with reduction techniques greatly improved they were widely available to tourists partaking in the grand tour as mementos of their trip.
Grand Tour
was a trip taken around Europe, typically undertaken by young men. The period began in the 17th century and went through to the late 18th century. Women over the age of 21 would occasionally partake, providing they were accompanied by a chaperone from their family. The Grand Tour was seen as an educational trip across Europe, usually starting in Dover, and would see young, wealthy travellers search for arts and culture. Those on The Grand Tour would often have a healthy supply of funds in order to enjoy themselves freely. Marble busts such as this one would be for sale to tourists partaking in the grand tour and for sale as a form of souvenir to educate and remember where they had visited.
BRONZE
is an alloy consisting primarily of copper with approximately 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such as arsenic or silicon depending on the age of the bronze and its origin. The additions of other metals produce a range of alloys that are usually harder than copper alone and carry useful properties such as strength. The earliest known use of bronze dates to the 5th millennium BCE from Iranian plateau, the bronze mix consists of arsenical copper and copper-arsenide. The earliest tin-copper-alloy recovered is dated to circa 4650 BCE and was found in Plocnik, Serbia. It is believed to have been smelted from a natural tin-copper ore.
MEASUREMENTS
21cm High x 11cm Wide x 15.5cm Long (8.27 x 4.33 x 6.1 Inches)
CONDITION
Excellent
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