Name: Bronze Seneca
SKU: MJGTA0071
Availability: InStock

Bronze Seneca

£1,450

A small Neapolitan patinated bronze bust of Seneca, known as the Pseudo Seneca, Naples, Italy, circa 1880, after the Antique, attributed to the Chiurazzi or Sabatino de Angelis & Fils foundry, finely cast and with a good patina, on a scagliola Sienna socle base.

The Pseudo Seneca is a Roman bronze bust of the late 1st century BC, that was discovered in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum in 1754. It was originally believed to depict Seneca the Younger, the Roman philosopher, because its emaciated features were supposed to reflect his Stoic philosophy. However, modern scholars agree it is likely a fictitious portrait, probably intended as either Hesiod or Aristophanes. It is thought that the original example was a lost Greek bronze of circa 200 BC. The bust is conserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

SKU: MJGTA0071 Category: Grand Tour

Dimensions: 20cm high, 9cm wide, 12cm deep

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Footnote

The Grand Tour of the late 17th, 18th and 19th centuries saw many upper class, wealthy and aristocratic gentlemen travel to Italy and Europe, particularly Rome, Venice and Florence, for pleasure, education and inspiration. This afforded them the opportunity to view important classical and Renaissance works of art and architecture.

The term ‘Grand Tour’ was coined by the Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassels (circa 1603-68), who used it in his influential guidebook The Voyage of Italy, published in 1670, to describe young lords travelling abroad to learn about art, architecture and antiquity.

Robert Adam wrote of Rome in 1755, ‘Rome is the most glorious place in the universal world. A grandeur and tranquillity reigns in it, everywhere noble and striking remains of antiquity appear in it, which are so many that one who has spent a dozen years in seeing is still surprised with something new…’

Many Grand tourists collected souvenirs in the form of bronze and marble models of sculpture and architecture, and formed collections of Grand Tour objects for their English country houses, most notably Chatsworth House.