ANTIQUE MARBLE SCULPTURE.
“IL MIO PITICCHE” - MARBLE GROUP OF GIRL WITH CAT & BIRD
BY FRANCESCO POZZI (1790-1844)
Inscribed: Il Mio Piticche
Signed & Dated: F. Pozzi. F. 1833
A carved white marble group depicting a young girl, partially draped and seated on a tasselled cushion, holding a bird in her left hand, while her right hand rests on the figure of a cat.
Alternative dates of 1790 and 1874 have been proposed for Pozzi’s birth and death (Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell’Ottocento, 1989 (pp 184-185) by A. Panzetta. He was born in Elba and studied at the Accademia di Bella Arti in Florence, winning a prize in 1816 to further his studies in Rome, where he met both Canova and Thorwaldsen. In 1823 he completed a statue of Filippo Colonna for the church of S. Apostoli, and was appointed Professor of Sculpture at the Academy in Florence, where he exhibited his work of Latona with her children,Apollo and Diana. Also from this period are Baccante (1820) at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and Danzatrice (1821) at the Pitti Palace. His patrons included the Borbone of Lucca and Prince Borghese in Quinto, for whom he made monuments in the churches of S. Croce and S. Marco in Florence. For Livorno (Leghorn) he carved a colossal statue of Ferdinando III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1831-47), and his Farinata degli Uberti of 1844, the Ghibelline leader immortalised in Dante’s Inferno, standsin the loggia of the Uffizi Galleries. Other examples of his work are known to be in collections in England, Russia and Poland.
The Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis records a bust of “The Youthful Hercules” by Pozzi at The Vine, Hampshire, and a relief of “Charity” in Cheshire.
We currently have one other sculpture by Pozzi: The “Cyparissus” of 1822, depicting the figure of a youth holding a stag, inspired by the story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the prince who lamented so much for the beloved stag which he had accidentally killed that he begged the Gods for death, and instead was turned by Apollo into a Cypress tree, to grieve forever.
Height: 28” (71 cm). Width: 27” (68.50 cm). Depth: 18” (46 cm)