Rare Early Grand Tour Bronze Belvedere Antinous

Rare example of an early 19th Century Grand Tour patinated library bronze statue of the Belvedere Antinous after the Hadrianic copy of a the original bronze by Praxiteles, discovered in 1540 and now housed in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican Collections in Rome. Descibed in the early 19th Century as "one of the most perfect statues that has come down to us from antiquity" and "undoubtedly one of the most beautiful heads of a young man from Antiquity". Versions can also be seen in other prominent collections including the Met, Bode and the National Trust. Patinated bronze on marmo Bardiglio Antico base. Base with historic repairs. Probably early 19th Century but similar bronzes have been sold at Christies and Sotheby's catalogued as 17th, 18th and 19th century and both French and Italian. Rare piece of early Grand Tour. Italy or France, circa 1800.

Provenance: collection of antiquitarian and author Alfred Theodore Arber-Cooke (1905-1993) who amassed a collection of works of arts from the 1930s to the 1970s.