ANTIQUE MARBLE SCULPTURE.

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PARIS
BY VALERIO VILLAREALE (1773-1834)

Italian (Probably Rome) – 1808.
Signed & Dated: V8 VILLAREALE SCULPT. 1808.
Provenance: The Burdett Collection.

A life size standing figure of Paris carved in white marble by Villareale, the leading exponent of the Neo-classical style in Southern Italy.

Depicted naked except for the Phrygian cap placed on his curling hair, head turning to the left, the youthful Prince leans his right arm on a tree-trunk partially covered by his cloak, his hand holding the apple as though about to make the fateful choice which would lead ultimately to the terrible Trojan Wars. His left hand holds a shepherd’s crook.

Born in Palermo, Villareale received his early training in the studio of the Sicilian painter, G. Velasco. Leaving Sicily in 1795 to further his artistic training, he first worked in Naples where the excavations at Herculaneum were to develop his love of the Antique. Then, in around 1799 he moved to Rome and entered the Studio of Antonio Canova.

During his long artistic career Villareale engraved cameos, restored Greek and Roman Antiquities and executed numerous sculptures including portraits, monuments and decorative themes such as the bas-reliefs with Homeric subjects for the Palazzo Reale at Caserta. Notable among his work for his native city of Palermo are two bas-reliefs depicting the plague of 1625 for the Chapel of Santa Rosalia in the Duomo. Villareale was appointed Soporindendente alle Belle Arti and Professor of Sculpture in the Accademia of Palermo.

It is likely that this Neo-classical composition was commissioned by one of the leading patrician families of Southern Italy. It is strongly Canovian in style and may be compared with the statue of the Baccante by Villareale in the Museo di Palermo.

Height: 6’3” (190.50 cm).