AN ITALIAN PATINATED BRONZE GRAND TOUR BUST OF APOLLO OR MELLEPHEBE

AN ITALIAN PATINATED BRONZE GRAND TOUR BUST OF APOLLO OR MELLEPHEBE
AFTER THE ANTIQUE, CAST BY SABATINO DE ANGELIS, NAPLES, LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY

with founder's plaque, on a marble socle

46.7cm high

Catalogue Note

This sculpture depicts an idealised youthful figure traditionally identified either as Apollo, the god of light, music, and prophecy, or as a beautiful youth known in earlier antiquarian literature as 'Mellephebe'. The original bust was discovered in 1752 at the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, it currently resides in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.