A masterpiece of technical excellence, this important Neo-Classical tazza by Lorenzo Bartolini is carved with the entwined snake handles intact from a single piece of statuary marble. Restorations

Another marble tazza of this identical model stands in the Chatsworth House Sculpture Hall. Originally there were two, as documented in the attached 19th-century photographs and in the Duke’s personal journal. This, we are confident, given the sheer complexity of its creation, is the smaller of the two, commissioned by the 6th Duke of Devonshire on his Grand Tour.

Lorenzo Bartolini 1777-1850
Born in Tuscany and studied in Florence and at the Officina Inghirami in Volterra, a workshop established in 1791 which produced alabaster sculpture and objects in the neoclassical style.  In 1797 Bartolini moved to Paris, where he became a close friend of Ingres and the favoured sculptor of Napoléon, who sent him to Carrara in 1807 to direct the Academy of Sculpture. Later he settled in Florence, where his Grand Tour patrons included Thomas Hope and the 6th Duke of Devonshire.

Tazza
Height 35cm
Width 68cm
Depth 59cm

Column
Height 105.5cm
Width 36cm
Depth 36cm