Francesco Righetti Italian, 1749-1819 After the antique

This group shows the death suffered by Dirce, daughter of the Sun-God, who married Lycus, King of Thebes, after he had divorced his first wife Antiope. Dirce, fearing that Lycus still loved her, had Antiope imprisoned and tortured, but the latter managed to escape and asked her sons to avenge her. This they did by tying Dirce to the horns of a wild bull who threw her remains into a spring which became her name.

This bronze derives from the famous marble statue excavated in the Baths of Caracalla in 1545 during the reign of Paul III Farnese (1534-1549). It passed immediately into the possession of the Pope's family in Rome, and was partially restored under Michelangelo's supervision in 1550. The group was displayed in the second courtyard of the Farnese Palace where it served as a fountain. The subject of the statue remained unclear for some time, and it was only after a second restoration around 1580, when it assumed its present appearance, that the group was identified with a work described by Pliny as representing the fate of Dirce by Apollonius and Tauriscus of Rhodes. In 1788, the statue, along with the other Antique marbles in the Farnese Collection, was taken to Naples where it was installed first in the Villa Reale, or public gardens, at Chiaia and later in the Museo Nazionale, its home to this day.

This fine bronze shows characteristics of Francesco Righetti's style and technique, although it is not signed by the artist. A pupil of Luigi Valadier (1726-1785), Righetti can be considered his master's spiritual heir and inherited his title of papal bronze-founder. He later worked for the Court of Naples, executing, together with his son Luigi, the equestrian monuments to Charles III and Ferdinand I in front of the Royal Palace. Righetti owned a well-known foundry in Rome, where he sold bronze reductions of celebrated Antique statues. He counted important princes and kings, including Pius VI and Empress Catherine II of Russia.

A man of his own time, Francesco Righetti could not help superimposing here and there a neoclassical aspect onto his Antique models. A closer look, for example, at the profile of the protagonist in this piece indicates a familiarity with the work of the greatest sculptor of the period, Antonio Canova, with whom Righetti was both friend and founder. This contemporary touch contributes to the charm and grace of his artefacts.

It was customary in the late eighteenth century for Roman artisans to print a catalogue of the objects for sale in their workshops. Francesco Righetti was no exception to this rule. The catalogue published in 1794 by François Righetti, Sculpteur & Fondeur en bronze à Rome Rue la Purification à Capo le Case,  in fact lists among other items Le Taureau de Farnese. At a price of 180 zecchini, it was the most expensive of the groups with the exception of the Niobe series which was made up of many individual figures.

This group is the only known bronze reproduction of the  Farnese Bull which was unquestionably executed by Francesco Righetti.

The Farnese Bull was reproduced in bronze many times during the course of the seventeenth century, one of the best examples being that of 1613 by Antonio Susini in the Villa Borghese, Rome, and in the eighteenth century by Filippo Tagliolini in biscuit for the Real Fabbrica della Porcellana in Naples.

We are grateful to Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios for cataloguing this lot.