An Italian Carved White Marble Fountain Surmounted by a Patinated Bronze Figure of a Putto, Signed Raffaello Romanelli, Firenze, Early 20th Century

Related Literature:

A.Bartlett, Raffaello Romanelli and his Works, Florence 1925, p.22; Panzetta vol.1, p.326

While Raffaello Romanelli is best known for his monumental sculpture which brought him international fame - works such as his Demidoff monument in Kiev and another to General Martin in Caracas - he also produced works of a more light-hearted nature, in a naturalistic style. The Fountain with the Frog is one of these. Unsurprisingly for a Florentine sculptor, Romanelli's inspiration derives from the Renaissance. He had previously executed the monument to Donatello in Santa Croce and the putto that surmounts the present fountain appears indebted to that master's famous Atys figure in the Bargello, with its similar expression. Another source which inspired Romanelli was the putto from the Lampada di Galileo by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi, in the cathedral in Pisa, with its closely comparable naked cherub with a very individual expression, similarly and analogous tilt of the head. A variant model of the Fountain with the Frog is at Montecatini Terme, dating to 1925.