A large Grand Tour Neapolitan bronze Narcissus, after the Antique, by Sabatino De Angelis & Fils foundry, Naples, Italy, circa 1880, on a circular base, in good untouched condition with faux excavation surface.
The Narcissus, held at the Museo Nazionale, Naples, was discovered in Pompeii as recently as 1862 but was very quickly acclaimed as a masterpiece. ‘It was the last antique statue to be discovered in Italy which enjoyed enormous fame…’. Taste and the Antique, Haskell (F.). By the turn of the century, revised opinion suggested that the bronze represented Dionysus, but it is still generally known as the Narcissus.