20th Century Reclining Woman with Sphinx Sculpture Alabaster

Dante and Beatrice Alabaster, 33 x 20 x 36 cm Early 20th century The present alabaster relief, of which great technical skill is evident, imitates the pages of a book, On the two...

19th century Pair of desks with portraits of Petrarch and Leonardo (2) Alabaster, 34 and 35 cm diam The pair of alabaster discs features a central cameo with the effigy of Petrarch and Leonardo, probably part of a larger series that featured illustrious characters from Italian history. On the openwork frame of Petrarch there are portraits of some characters who face each other, combined for centuries, as can be seen from the shapes of the garments that span several centuries: from the thirteenth century, in which men wear long-tipped bonnets, to the fifteenth century and Sixteenth century, the two characters at the top, in the seventeenth century, with wide collars, up to the eighteenth century. Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) embodies the figure of the humanist intellectual par excellence, entirely dedicated to the study of Latin conceived as the only form of expression worthy of a man of letters, so as to serve any form of written communication, including letters and the reflection on himself witnessed in the Secretum. A personality made more complex by obsessive perfectionism, which led him to a continuous and infinite editing of the work which he also flaunted to consider as minor and which instead ensured him an undying fame among posterity, the Canzoniere. But the only aspect fixed in the collective imagination is that of the lover who idolizes the places where his ideal love blossomed...

Ceramic sculpture of a seated female figure. Unglazed terracotta with beautiful texture. Signed T.A.W. and believed to date to the mid-20th century. Measures: 8.5" tall and 8" long.

A sculpture of the bust of a woman carved out of alabaster and on a marble plinth, signed by artist, Florence, Italy, 20th century. Elements of rococo and neoclassicism. Please note ...