Luigi Pampaloni (Florence, 1791 – 1847), Young Girl

Luigi Pampaloni (Florence, 1791 – 1847)

Girl

Marble, 37 x 33 x 26 cm

The work in question, a graceful young girl in white marble lying down with her hands clasped in a sign of contemplation, is to be included in the vast artistic corpus of the Florentine sculptor Luigi Pampaloni (Florence, 1791 – 1847), nicknamed the “Anacreon of sculpture” due to the extreme flexibility he demonstrated in alternating a serious and severe register, more appropriate to a monumental style, with a graceful and gentle one, suitable for less demanding subjects.

Around 1810, after completing a period of apprenticeship in Pisa at the workshop of his brother Francesco, a sculptor and expert in alabaster work, the artist continued his training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, which at the time was characterised by a lively atmosphere supported by the patronage of Elisa Baciocchi: here he attended the sculpture courses held by the famous Lorenzo Bartolini and the drawing lessons of the Frenchman Fréderic Jean-Baptiste Desmarais, taking part in competitions for both disciplines in 1811. The artist, still a pupil of Bartolini, began his career with important decorative commissions in Florence: he worked at the Villa del Poggio Imperiale (1817 and 1822) and at Palazzo Pitti (around 1820), creating bas-reliefs and plastic decorations in neo-fifteenth-century style. In 1826 he achieved fame with a funerary sculpture group, depicting a Boy in Prayer and a Reclining Girl, receiving in the same year the commission for three Naiads for the fountain in Piazza Farinata degli Uberti in Empoli. In December 1826 the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore entrusted him with the task of decorating the two niches on the facade of the new Palazzo dei Canonici, located along the southern side of the cathedral, with the statues of Arnolfo di Cambio and Filippo Brunelleschi, both of whom had already been planned to be seated: critics praised the sculptor "for having been able to capture the nature of the two architects", adapting it to the different eras in which they lived. Also in the field of celebratory sculpture, he was entrusted with the execution of the Monument to Pietro Leopoldo in Piazza S. Caterina in Pisa, and since 1836 he had taken part in the decoration of the loggia of the Uffizi, creating the statue of Leonardo da Vinci.

In his full maturity he devoted himself to themes of religious inspiration and morally edifying subjects, linked to the philanthropic climate of the Restoration in Tuscany. It was precisely in this context that in 1838, Pampaloni received from the Pistoian patron and philanthropist Niccolò Puccini the commission for a statue that was to depict a young girl in prayer. Soon, however, the project was enriched and a second figure was added, a praying child (for which the artist reused a model already made in 1826), both then placed on a rocky peak at the top of which was placed a cross. The work took the name of Orphans on the Rock who, as Puccini himself wrote in his will, “abandoned by the greed of men on the rock of misery” received comfort from faith in the Cross, which “provides the needy with what was denied them by the world”, destining the sculptural group to the chapel of the Oratory of the former Conservatory of Orphans in Pistoia, where it is still preserved today. In July 1840, the model of the Girl alone was exhibited at the annual exhibition in the halls of the Academy of Fine Arts, while the entire marble complex was completed and delivered in 1842, exhibited at the first “Festa delle spighe” held in the park of the Villa Puccini, and then placed in the large room on the first floor. The artist, in fact, created several versions of the Girl of various sizes and materials, among which the most notable are the one preserved in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence and the terracotta model owned by Puccini himself, today located in the Palazzo di San Gregorio in Pistoia.

Observing the sculpture presented here, the fundamental characteristics of Pampaloni's modeling emerge, praised in his time for "kindness, truth and expression". Able to combine the neoclassical tradition of Canova inspiration, with a romantic sensibility and attention to realism, his works demonstrate delicate executive refinement and a deep psychological investigation of the subjects.