Attributed to Carlo Romano

Milan, Esposizione delle opere di belle arti per l’anno 1852, 1852, no. 335

A student at the Brera Academy in Milan under Pompeo Marchesi, and official artist of the Habsburgs, Carlo Romano was among the artists who engaged in the transformation of sculpture in the mid nineteenth-century. These artists transcended the prevailing ideals of antiquity, Roman mythology, religious purism, and the naturalism inspired by the Florentine Quattrocento. They succeeded in aligning Milanese art with the expressive and emotional outcomes of contemporary Romantic painting. The resultant works incorporated the sentiments of intimate and daily life into traditional genre art and ancient subjects.

Alongside being a member of the Brera Academy, Carlo Romano was also among the numerous sculptors employed in the centuries-long construction of the Duomo di Milano. He was commissioned for both interior and exterior elements of the Duomo, notably the Carrara marble statues of King Solomon and the Prophet Isaiah, placed on either side of the Virgin’s Altar.

The present group of Samson Slaying the Lion has been identified with the eponymous work exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Brera Academy in 1852. While the Marquis Filippo Villani, an eccentric figure in the collecting milieu of nineteenth-century Milan, criticised the work for the smoothness of the marble, other contemporaries passionately appreciated the piece. The writer and opera librettist Giorgio Giachetti praised the vigorous expression Romano infused into the anatomy of the piece, lauding: ‘Testa braccia, dorso, coscie, gambe, ivi tutto è armonia, tutto concorre a dimostrare la forza erculea del terribile Filisteo’ (Head, arms, back, thighs, legs, here everything is harmony, everything concurs to demonstrate the Herculean strength of the terrible Philistine) (Giachetti, op. cit., p. 101).

This disparity in reception can be explained by Romano’s innovative sculptural choices, which perhaps did not appeal to Villani’s classicist taste. The naturalism imbued throughout the figure appears to appeal more to the living spirit of the subject, rather than embody a classicised model of ideal beauty. Such lively elements are especially visible in the deliberately unfinished lion’s mane and Samson’s hair.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Giachetti, ‘Pubblica esposizione di belle arti nelle sale del palazzo di Brera in Milano’, in Il Pirata. Giornale letterario-teatrale, vol. XVIII, no. 26, September 1852, p. 101

The present lot is the subject of an expertise by Stefano Grandesso, which is available upon request.