ITALIAN, ROME, 17TH CENTURY | HEAD OF A BOY OR ANGEL

Distinguished private Italian collection

This beautiful marble head of an angel recalls the work of the greatest Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). The ecstatic facial type with tilted neck, wide open eyes, parted lips and fulsome cheeks, recall Bernini's famous group Truth Unveiled in Villa Borghese, Rome (inv. no. CCLCCVII). The present marble is beautifully carved, note the curling locks of hair and the finely polished surface of the flesh. It was surely executed by a skilled sculptor possibly of some importance. Given the closeness to Bernini it seems plausible that it may be the work of one of his students or a talented sculptor active in his wake. Compare, for example, with Ercole Ferrata's Angel with a Cross from the Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome.

RELATED LITERATURE

O. Ferrari and S. Papaldo, Le sculture del Seicento a Roma, Rome, 1999, p. 459; A. Bacchi and A. Coliva, Bernini, exh. cat. Galleria Borghese, 2017, pp. 268-271, no. VIII.3