PIETRO CALVI | BEPPO

Pietro Calvi, celebrated for his orientalist busts where he combined bronze and marble in a single work of art, also had a fascination for showing various textures in a work of marble. This is apparent in the present bust, where the smoothness of the youth's face and his coat is contrasted with the slight coarseness of his tight curls and the fur lining of his coat.

Beppo, so named by the inscription on the base, is a shepherd boy who plays the piffero, a rustic oboe, tucked away in his pocket. According to tradition, the shepherds from the Abruzzi mountains would travel to Rome a few days before Christmas every year, where they earned money as street musicians. These pifferari became a popular topic with Italian genre sculptors.