Cesare Lapini (1848-1893), Nymphe

Cesare Lapini (1848-1893)

Nymph

Alabaster, alt. cm 78

The alabaster sculpture that is described here represents a young girl holding a flowering branch at breast height while with the other hand it seems to want to hide her face, in act of innocent pudicizia. The crystal-clear and pure smile demonstrates the spontaneous joy of this seemingly superfluous gesture, being completely naked except for the thin veil that wraps her legs in a spiral starting from the right side. Other floral elements climb from the base to the half height of the legs, thus merging with the trail of the fine veil that falls softly to the ground. The floral theme, the nudity, the simple hairstyle held by a modest cord with medal and the extreme beauty of the maiden make her identify with the mythological figure of the nymph, usually portrayed with these characteristics and linked to the natural world, represented in this case by the flowers. A specimen, signed C: Lapini, testifies to the possible origin of the model, considering the fame of this sculptor, active especially in Florence in the second half of the nineteenth century, and his copious production of works, also made in different versions. Born in the city of Milan in the middle of the century, he was able to create a flourishing workshop from which came out works capable of attracting wealthy foreign buyers; the luck that he was able to obtain also depended on the choice of subjects different in size but always attributable to sensual themes, love or allegorical that they saw as protagonists, precisely female figures. Busts, copies of the Ancient, portraits or gender subjects were part of his production thus demonstrating its extreme versatility but the success came thanks to the sculptures depicting the aforementioned subjects: exhibited numerous sculptures at the Esposizione Generale Italiana in Turin in 1884, including Sorpresa and Il primo bacio, also exhibiting in Rome in 1888.This statue certainly fits in the graceful, refined, sentimental and delicately erotic taste that you can admire in his other works, where the subtlety of certain details, such as the veil with which the nymph is covered, brings out the absolute mastery in processing.