Lot 258: AN ITALIAN NEOCLASSIC TERRACOTTA RELIEF OF HERCULES

Dated 1758, By Filippo Scandellari (1717-1801) The rectangular relief depicting a nude bearded figure standing in contrapuntal pose, with the pelt of the Nemean lion draped across his pelvic area and over a tree stump behind, holding a club in one hand and standing on an integral rocky outcropping, inscribed F.S./1758, within an associated Italian 18th century giltwood molded frame 21in. (53.5cm.) high, 111/2in. (30cm.) wide the terracotta PROVENANCE With Sestieri Brothers, Rome, 1965. EXHIBITION Sculpture from the David Daniels Collection, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 26 October 1979 - 13 January 1980, cat. no. 35. NOTES Similar in depth and detail of modelling, finely articulated musculature and figural style and vertical format with architectural low relief background to two other terra-cotta reliefs also by Scandellari, all three are firmly given to the master on the basis of their inscriptions. The present Hercules is signed F.S. 1758, the Expulsion of Adam and Eve in the City Art Museum of Saint Louis is inscribed F.S. 1758 and the third depicting Saint John the Baptist in the Minneapolis Institute of Art is inscribed F.S.A.C. 1763. It is interesting to note that Scandellari most usually signed his works F.S. up to his reception into the Academy in 1760, at which point he employed the signature F.S.A.C. (Filippo Scandellari Accademia Clementina).