AFTER THE ANTIQUE, ATTRIBUTED TO FONDERIA CHIURAZZI, NAPLES, LATE19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The bust of Dionysus, originally identified as Plato, was discovered in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. It was uncovered in an outlying room, but was likely created to decorate the persitilium, or colonnaded garden. It is now in the National Museum of Archaeology in Naples (inv. No. 5618.)

The Villa dei Papyri was discovered in 1750, possibly belonging to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, it was one of the most exquisite villas in Herculaneum. Its name comes from the unique library of papyri (or scrolls) that were discovered alongside a number of other preserved works of art such as frescoes, bronzes and marbles. Over 80 sculptures were discovered at the Villa including an impressive and rare number of large bronze statues. The group constitutes the largest collection of Greek and Roman sculptures discovered in a single excavation.

The Chiurazzi Foundry was established by engraver Gennaro Chiurazzi in 1870. The Fonderia Chiurazzi expanded rapidly, due in part to the high demand for copies of the ancient statues from Pompeii and Herculaneum, now the National Museum, Naples. In the 1860’s, the Italian government began permitting artisans to create copies of the artifacts in the museum. An identical cast of this bust appears in the 1929 Chiurazzi Workshop Catalogue as model no. 1, and notes that the original bust, with "its pathetic expression, style of its hair and beard and its elegance, was attributed to Scopas or Praxiteles." Widely known as a leading source for these reproductions, the Fonderia Chiurazzi, had a long history of providing works for important collectors including John Wanamaker, who purchased four hundred of Chiurazzi's bronze reproductions for the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 1904, John Ringling, who ordered several million lire worth of sculpture in 1925, which are now displayed at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, and most recently, J. Paul Getty. In the early 1970's, Getty commissioned a large group of works from Chiurazzi for his museum of antiquities in Malibu, California.

A similar bronze reproduction of this bust was sold Christie’s, London, 19 July 2022, lot 73, (£15,120).