Vittorio Caradossi

Amenaide is a character from the Italian opera Tancrediby Gioachino Rossini. Two versions of the opera exist, one which ends tragically like in the original play by Voltaire, and another version which concludes happily. In both, Amenaide is the young innocent daughter of a noble family who falls in love with the hero of the tale, Tancredi. In the tragic version, Tancredi marries Amenaide just in time for him to die in his wife’s arms from a wound received in battle. 

 Professor Vittorio Caradossi was a Florentine sculptor and was active during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. He studied under Augusto Rivalta at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence from 1874 to 1881.  In 1896 he established his reputation as a sculptor when he exhibited a series of female busts at the annual Florence Exhibition. Between 1904 and 1915 he exhibited his public monuments internationally in Paris, Milan, San Francisco and in his native city of Florence. The model for his most highly regarded public statue to the Renaissance artist Desiderio da Settignano was exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. 

 In contrast to his many large public monuments, Caradossi was famed for his sensuous female allegorical nude sculptures. He was distinguished for his highly decorative style with elaborate compositions.

 This figure of Amenaide is a gentle and modest depiction of the young heroine, which is emphasised by the drapery clinging to the curve of her hip. In the present sculpture, rather than focussing on the dramatic circumstances of the play, Caradossi accomplishes a moment of intimate reflection.

  Another example of a marble by Caradossi, Shooting Stars, which has a height of 156.5cm. / 61 5/8in., can be found in the collection of the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago. Other examples of Caradossi’s Shooting Stars model have been sold at Sotheby’s in the past; one which has a height of 182.9cm. / 72in. sold for an impressive 387,500 USD in 1995, another which has a height of 231cm. / 90.9in. sold for 233,500 USD in 1996 and most recently on the 8th of November 2013 one with a height of 153.7cm / 60.5in. sold in New York for 689,000 USD.