AFTER THE ANTIQUE, CAST BY MICHELE D'AMODIO, NAPLES, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The bronze of the Seated Hermes or Mercury Resting was discovered at the Villa dei Papiri in the mid-eighteenth century. Itself a Roman copy of the Hellenistic original, it is one of the most celebrated sculptures of antiquity. Widely admired by the Grand Tourists of the 18th and 19th centuries, reproductions of the ancient bronzes, including full-scale examples such as the present lot, were produced as souvenirs by foundries such as the Neapolitan firm of Michele D'Amodio.