19th Century Grand Tour Bronze Sculpture of Spinario or Boy with a Thorn

This elegant 19th-century Grand Tour bronze sculpture represents Narcissus, the character from Greek mythology known for his beauty and self-admiration. Standing 65 cm high, the figu...

This superbly worked bronze sculpture with a beautiful patina by the Neapolitan foundry Fonderia Chiurazzi is a full-scale (1:1) replica of the original now preserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. The male figure is clad in a short tunic and cap, his head turned slightly to the right, both arms outstretched, his left hand holding a small basket. He is seated on a rocky outcrop adorned with shells, and between his legs runs a small fountain head in the form of a Bacchus mask. Measuring 55 cm in height, the sculpture demonstrates refined workmanship and a rich, natural patina. It is unusual to find the basket with the sculpture. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chiurazzi produced type of bronzes in various sizes and finishes, but this particular casting is of notably high quality for its type and bears the foundry’s impressed mark Fonderia Chiurazzi. The original Roman bronze fountain figure, commonly known as The Neapolitan Fisherman, was uncovered in 1823 during archaeological excavations at Pompeii, within the Casa della Fontana Piccola (House of the Little Fountain). This find formed part of a richly decorated mosaic fountain ensemble surrounded by four statuettes, among them a seated angler wearing an exomis (tunic) and holding a fishing rod and basket, an image that perfectly captures a moment of relaxed domestic life in a Roman household. The original layout of the fountain and its sculptures can be seen in Giuseppe Abbate’s illustration, Mosaic Fountain Sculptures in the House of the Small Fountain, Pompeii, published by the Nicolini brothers in 1854. Abbate’s illustration provides a valuable visual record of how the fountain originally appeared, showing the arrangement of the fisherman, the sister bronze Cupid with Goose, the mosaic basin, and its decorative motifs. Artist Luigi Bazzani also vividly captured Pompeii’s domestic elegance in his watercolor paintings. One shows another similar fountain scene, depicting how such spaces may have looked during Pompeii’s flourishing years, with richly ornamented walls, bright mosaics, and sculptural fountains glimmering in sunlight. Another watercolor by Bazzani, painted in 1919, directly portrays the Neapolitan Fisherman in situ at Pompeii. Scholars trace the fisherman’s prototype back to a Hellenistic original of the late 3rd century BCE. Hellenistic sculptural models continued to influence Roman art well into the first centuries CE. The Fonderia Chiurazzi was established in Naples in 1870 by Gennaro Chiurazzi, a pupil of sculptor Pietro Masulli, who had pioneered the use of the lost-wax casting technique for accurate reproductions of classical bronzes. After Italian unification (1861), the Naples Archaeological Museum, formerly the Royal Bourbon Museum, began issuing permits to selected workshops to reproduce its vast collections from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. Chiurazzi excelled in this field, combining industrial precision with hand-tooled artistry to produce faithful, museum-quality casts. By the turn of the 20th century, Chiurazzi bronzes...