Italian school of the Grand Tour, 19th century

Italian School of the Grand Tour, 19th century.
"Dancing Faun".
Bronze.
Measurements: 64 x 24 x 24 cm; 5 x 24 cm (base).

Bronze sculpture representing the dancing faun, which gave its name to the Pompeian house where it was found. The sculpture was found in the center of the atrium on the white limestone impluvium. Archaeologists discovered an inscription with the nickname Saturninus, suggesting that the dwelling was owned by the important gens, or clan, Satria; a ring with the surname Cassius was also found, indicating that someone from the Cassii family married into the gens Satria and lived in the House of the Faunus. This piece follows the aesthetics of the aforementioned Pompeian sculpture found in 1830, currently housed in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. In the years following the discovery, the statue became known as a cult object for the Grand Tour travelers in Italy.

The term "Grand Tour", which appears for the first time in the work "The Voyage d'Italie" by Richard Lassels, was used to define the long journey through Europe, especially Italy, that young British aristocrats usually made from the seventeenth century, but especially throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The purpose of the trip was for young people to become acquainted with the art and culture of France and Italy, to admire classical art at first hand, to learn or improve their knowledge of languages, and to establish contacts and relationships with the cultural and political elites of these countries. Travelers were often looking for pieces with which to start their own art collections, objects to take back to their places of residence as souvenirs. For this reason, workshops specialized in the replica of Roman pieces, both in bronze and marble, emerged, some of which acquired a great reputation.