‘The Finding of Moses’ - An Important Florentine White Marble Figural Group

Object Description

‘The Finding of Moses’ – An Important Florentine White Marble Figural Group, by Pietro Bazzanti on a carved Rosso Levanto Pedestal.

Incised to the base ‘P. Bazzanti , Firenze’.

The sculpture depicts the Pharaoh’s daughter in classical dress and wearing the Egyptian Vulture headdress, holding the infant Moses who plays with strings of pearls around her neck.

This finely carved figure by Bazzanti, epitomises the romantic historicist style popular in the last quarter of the 19th century. The figure of the Pharaoh’s daughter is identified by her striking and finely modelled headdress. The vulture headdress became an attribute of Egyptian royal women in the Old Kingdom, originally linking the queen with Nekhbet, the tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, and came to underscore the divinity of queenship.

Italian, Circa 1870.

Dimensions:
Total Height 230 cm / 91 inches
Height figure 150 cm / 59 inches
Height of pedestal 80 cm / 32 inches
Maximum width of pedestal 66 cm / 26 inches

Object History

Pietro Bazzanti was one of the leading marble sculptors working in Italy in the nineteenth century. He specialised in allegorical subjects as well as pieces inspired by Antique and Renaissance sculpture.

His gallery in Florence, Pietro Bazzanti e Figlio, originally Bazzanti’s studio, was established in 1822 as a showroom for his work. Bazzanti exhibited with success at many of the great international exhibitions of the period, including the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 and the Boston exhibition of 1883.

Regarded as one of the most talented sculptors of his day, his studio became a centre for other important sculptors such as Ferdinando Vichi, Cesare Lapini and Guglielmo Pugi. Such was the high regard in which he was held, that many of these sculptor’s works are inscribed ‘Galleria Bazzanti’.

In addition to sculpture the Bazzanti workshop was also known for the production of spectacular specimen marble table tops for the grand tour.

Object Details