ANTIQUE MARBLE SCULPTURE.
A WHITE MARBLE FIGUE OF PSYCHE OF CAPUA
BY GIUSEPPE VACCA (1803 - 1871)
Italian – Mid 19th Century. After the Antique.
Signed and Dated: G. Vacca
In Napoli 1861
A full-sized, white marble figure of the Psyche of Capua, sometimes called Aphrodite, carved by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Vacca after the original now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples. This is thought to be a Roman copy of a 4th Century (c. 350-330 BC) Greek original, possibly by Scopas, excavated in the 18th Century at the amphitheatre in Capua.
Though born in Carrara, Vacca later worked in Naples where he is best known for sculpting the tomb of General F. Salluzzo in the Church of St Dominic Major.
It has been suggested that the angular head of the figure implies that it might once have been part of a pediment. It is also possible that the smooth surfaces on the head and arms are evidence of a practice of sculptors at that time to combine different pieces of marble in one statue, and that parts of the original figure are lost. Others speculate that the smooth surface on the side of the trunk indicates that the figure was once joined with another – possibly that of Eros.
Psyche is translated from the Greek as “breath, the principle of life, the soul”, but was also the name of the princess in Ovid’s Metamorphoses with whom Eros fell in love.
Height: 37 ½” (95 cm). Base: 13 ½” (35.50 cm) square.