AN ITALIAN ALABASTER GRAND TOUR FIGURE OF THE SLEEPING ARIADNE

AN ITALIAN ALABASTER GRAND TOUR FIGURE OF THE SLEEPING ARIADNE

AFTER THE ANTIQUE, ROMAN, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

12.1cm high, 18cm wide

Provenance

The contents of The Grange, Wendover.

Catalogue Note

Known as The Sleeping Ariadne, the figure is also identified as Cleopatra, this reclining figure was carved after the antique prototype dating from the late Hadrianic period (itself a copy of a 2nd century BC Greek prototype) in the collection of The Musei Vaticani, Rome. The statue was first recorded in 1512 as having been acquired by Pope Julius II.

Literature
Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, no. 24, pp. 184-187.