Luigi Pampaloni (florence, 1791 - 1847), Maiden

Luigi Pampaloni (Florence, 1791 - 1847)

Maiden

Marble, cm 37 x 33 x 26

The work in question, a pretty maiden in white marble stretched out with her hands joined in contemplation, is to be counted in the vast artistic corpus of the Florentine sculptor Luigi Pampaloni (Florence, 1791 - 1847), nicknamed the "Anacreon of sculpture" because of the extreme ductility demonstrated in knowing how to alternate a grave and severe register, more appropriate to a monumental style, to that graceful and gentle, suitable for subjects of less commitment.

Around 1810, after completing an apprenticeship in Pisa at the workshop of his brother Francesco, a sculptor and expert in the processing of alabaster, the artist continued his training at the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, characterized at the time by a lively environment supported by the patronage of Elisa Baciocchi: here he attended the courses of sculpture held by the famous Lorenzo Bartolini and the drawing lessons of the French Fréderic Jean-Baptiste Desmarais, taking part in competitions in both disciplines in 1811. The artist, still a pupil of Bartolini, began his career with important decorative commissions in Florence: he worked at the villa of Poggio Imperiale (1817 and 1822) and at Palazzo Pitti (circa 1820), making bas-reliefs and plastic decorations in neoquattrocentesco style. In 1826 he achieved notoriety with a funerary sculptural group, depicting a child in prayer and a girl lying down, receiving in the same year the assignment for three Naiads destined to the fountain of piazza Farinata degli Uberti in Empoli.