Alabaster group depicting a young boy holding two puppies in - Lot 128

Lot n° 128
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Estimation :
1200 - 1800 EUR
Alabaster group depicting a young boy holding two puppies in - Lot 128
Alabaster group depicting a young boy holding two puppies in his arms Italy or France, 16th century Traces of polychromy; previous restorations and missing sections; resting on a metal base from a later period H: 26 cm; Ht: 32 cm Could this sculpture have come from a funerary monument? As early as the 12th century, animals—particularly lions and dogs—were depicted at the feet of recumbent figures as protectors of the deceased in the afterlife. Here, the child stands holding two puppies in his arms. A symbol of loyalty and faith, the dog can also be seen as the guide leading the deceased to the afterlife. This theme has parallels dating back to antiquity, notably in a marble sculpture depicting a child holding a dog, created in the 1st century A.D. after a Greek model from the 3rd century B.C., now in the Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes. It also reappears during the Renaissance in a marble sculpture attributed to Tommaso Fiamberti (active c. 1480–1525), housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (41.100.237). These parallels may indicate a direct or indirect familiarity with ancient models and their reinterpretations during the Renaissance.
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