Spanish or Italian school; 18th century. "Lady... Lot 4

Spanish or Italian school; 18th century. "Lady with marine animal". Carved marble. With faults and restorations. Provenance: Medinaceli Palace (Madrid). Measurements: 124 x 59 x 30 cm; 175 x 59 x 44,5 cm (base). Marble sculpture representing a young woman with long hair and a delicate face accompanied by a marine animal. The subject of the piece is taken from classical mythology, representing the beauty of the nereids. In Greek mythology, the Nereids are sea nymphs, female spirits of the waters, and the 50 daughters of Nereus. They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be kind and helpful to sailors, like the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. The Nereids symbolise all that is beautiful and kind in the sea. Their melodious voices sang as they danced around their father. They are depicted as very beautiful girls, crowned with branches of red coral and dressed in white silk robes adorned with gold, who were barefoot. In the case of this piece, the Greek reference is evident in the composition, which presents the goddess from the front, in a serene and restrained position. The softness of the modelling and the anatomical reference are also purely neoclassical, directly inspired by Greek and Roman archaeological examples. It is a sculpture that follows the Renaissance canons that prevailed in Europe around the 1500s and 1600s, based on the concepts of balance and harmony typical of the humanist current of life and art, and of its spiritual, political and economic conditions. Sculpture reflects - perhaps better than other artistic fields - this eagerness to return to the classical Greco-Roman world. However, it still retains certain aesthetic features typical of Gothic carvings.