Object Description
Rome, early 19th century, After the Antique
Bust of Socrates
Marble, on a circular marble socle
49 cm. / 19 ΒΌ ins high, overall
This fine neoclassical bust of Socrates is based on an ancient portrait of the Greek philosopher from the Villa Albani, Rome (inv. no. 1040), which was discovered in 1735 in the grounds of a villa in Tusculum, near Rome. It was subsequently acquired by Cardinal Allesandro Albani (1692-1779), for his villa on the Via Salaria.
Presumably due to its relatively late discovery in the eighteenth century, there appear to be very few marble copies of the Albani Socrates from the late eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, with most modern busts of the philosopher being based on another ancient portrait in the Capitoline Museum, Rome (Sala dei Filosofi, inv. MC0508).
A plaster cast of the Albani Socrates, in the collection of the National Galleries, Scotland (acc. no. Albacini.40), was made in the late eighteenth century by the sculptor and restorer Carlo Albacini, whose Roman workshop was active between 1770-1813 and whose vast collection of plaster casts were sold by his son and assisstant, Filippo Albacini (1777-1858), in 1838. A lost marble based on the Albani bust is also known to have been carved in the Roman workshop of the Danish Neoclassical sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), circa 1805-06, although this was also more likely to have been a herm-shaped bust, like the original.
It seems likely, therefore, that the present bust was carved in a Roman workshop in the early nineteenth century, possibly by a sculptor in the circle of Carlo or Filippo Albacini. The physiognomy of the philosopher, with his deeply furrowed brows, sunken cheeks and pug nose, is also rather exaggerated like in the original marble, suggesting that the sculptor studied the Albani bust first-hand in Rome.