The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 11
italian, 2nd half 18th century
1
The Albani Faun
After the Antique
White marble
50 cm (19¾ in.) high
fig. 1
Roman, The Albani Faun,
marble, 24 cm high
Munich, Glyptothek
This carved marble bust takes as its inspiration the head of a mirthful laughing
faun in the Munich Glyptothek (fig. 1), which is considered to be a Roman imperial
period copy of a Hellenistic original. It was formerly in the collection of the
influential Italian Albani family and rumoured to have been kept in the personal
quarters of Cardinal Albani himself. The Faun left Rome for Paris as a result of the
Treaty of Tolentino, which was signed in February 1797, and was part of the 100
works of art claimed by Napoleon’s armies after their invasion of the Papal States
earlier that year. But, only twenty years later, after the defeat of Napoleon, the
allies instructed the great Neoclassical sculptor Canova to oversee the restitution
of these objects previously sent to Paris. However, the Albani family were either
unwilling, or unable, to pay the transportation costs of returning all their goods, so
the Faun was sold in Paris to Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and ultimately made
its way to Munich.
The present work derives from the second half of the eighteenth century, a
period when there was a great demand for very high-quality versions of the most
revered ancient statues that had survived from ancient times. For the most talented
artists it was an opportunity to pitch their talents against those of Antiquity, and
for collectors it was a chance to display their refined tastes and cultural erudition,
while at the same time paying homage to what they considered to be the greatest
sculptural achievements in Western art.
related literature
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900,
New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 93–94
