19th century, Girl with a kitten

early nineteenth century

Girl with kitten

Alabaster, 46 x 18 x 20 cm

Signed GA and dated 1867

The sculpture depicts a young girl sitting on a chair. The girl is busy knitting, with her hands holding a ball of yarn and some needles. Her hair is gathered in a soft bun, with a few curls framing her face. She wears a simple dress, with short sleeves and voluptuous pleats. It leaves her ankles and bare feet exposed. The simplicity of the dress worn by the girl as well as that of the shape of the wooden chair on which she is sitting suggest that the scene is set in a humble and domestic environment. A kitten plays with her ball of yarn and she gives him a benevolent and loving look.

Alabaster was a very popular material in 19th-century sculpture, appreciated for its softness, its translucency and its ability to delicately render details. The fact that the stone, quarried mainly in the Tuscan area – the city of Volterra was particularly known for the processing of this precious material – was relatively easy to work, meant that the most minute details could be represented to perfection. Alabaster was often used for small and medium-sized sculptures, depicting female figures, children, mythological and allegorical subjects: its delicacy was perfectly suited to the aesthetics of these subjects, from which grace, sensitivity and the idealization of beauty had to emerge.