Lot 44: - Donato Barcaglia , Italian 1849-1930 La giovanezza che tenta di arrestare il Tempo (Beauty holding back Time) white marble, on a grey veined marble base

signed and dated: D. Barcaglia / 1884 Milano white marble, on a grey veined marble base

measurements note marble: 226 by 150cm., 89 by 59in. base: 75 by 90cm., 29½ by 35½in.

Beauty Holding Back Time is Donato Barcaglia's masterpiece. The composition is dramatic and ambitious, epitomising the technical virtuosity of Italian sculptors in the last quarter of the 19υth century. Father Time, with large wings towering over the group, rushes forward, his right arm extended, his hand pointing forward and holding an hour glass, while a woman tries to restrain him, leaning backwards and digging her heals in. The group is over 2 metres tall and 1 ½ meters wide. The extreme movement and tension in the composition almost defies belief for a marble group of this size. The present Beauty Holding Back Time has an unbroken provenance from its acquisition by the Swinfen Broun family over a hundred years ago, and is in immaculate condition. It is unquestionably one of the most important Italian 19υth century marbles to appear at auction in over a decade.

Barcaglia exhibited the first version of Beauty Holding Back Time in Florence in 1875 where it caused an immediate sensation. A commentator in the Florentine journal L'Italia Artistica admired the characterisation of the subject describing it as a 'wonderful success... equal in its importance for the subject as much as for the movement of the figures and in the expressions and life. Beauty is represented at her most vigorous age or rather at the moment at which she starts to decline and to feel the effects of time that is running away. With her hands she tries to stop time, whilst with her look, somewhere between tearful and seductive, she tries to cajole him to listening to her pleas ... and with an ironic smile he makes her understand that any attempt is futile.'

In the following year Barcaglia sent his masterpiece on to the international stage showing it at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, where the group was awarded a prestigious Gold Medal. One of the judges noted 'the poise of this work is quite a marvel, as it seems almost impossible that the larger figure of Time should not outbalance and overthrow the group.' That version was acquired by the Museo Revoltella in Trieste.

For the twenty-seven year old Barcaglia, the international acclaim he received for his Beauty Holding back Time would have been instrumental in launching his career as one of leading sculptors of his generation. Panzetta notes that Barcaglia became the head of one of the most prolific and successful sculpture studios in Italy, specialising in prominent public and private monuments. It was perhaps in acknowledgement of the influence of Beauty Holding back Time on his career that Barcaglia cast a bronze version of the group for his own memorial in the Monumentale in Milan.

The precise circumstances of the acquisition of the present and only other documented marble of Beauty Holding back Time are not known. Dated 1884, this marble must have been carved to continue to promote Barcaglia's skill and reputation at home and abroad after the earlier version was bought by the museum in Trieste. Barcaglia is known to have exhibited in London in 1881 and 1888 and it may have been one of these exhibitions which stimulated the purchase by the Swinfen Broun family of Swinfen Hall, near Lichfield in Staffordshire. It is likely that Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Alexander Wilsone Swinfen Broun (1858-1948) or his father acquired the group originally. The former began his military career in 1876, commanding a battalion of the South Staffordshire regiment in South Africa. He served as High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Stafford and was a generous benefactor to Lichfield and the county of Stafford.

Major sculptures by Barcaglia appear on the market infrequently. The last important marble to appear at auction in London was his life size figure of The Athlete which sold in March 2007 for £252,000 (Christie's, 29 March 2007 lot 118).

RELATED LITERATURE
Berresford, pp. 27-8, 58, 128, 190, 235-36; Leslie, p. 198; L'Italia Artistica; Panzetta, vol.1, p.72;