Young Woman with Boy and Dog

The sculpture depicts a young woman. Her hair is gathered in rolled braids on the top of her head, with well-defined curls falling over her forehead. She wears a white dress, tightened around her hips by a polychrome belt and with rolled-up sleeves over her forearms. The woman is kneeling, with a small white dog in her lap. Her gaze is directed at the boy, who is wrapped in a white garment. The boy leans on the woman’s left leg while she gently caresses his hair. Their gestures and gazes create a tender, intimate bond between them, while their intersecting positions lend the composition its refinement, which is enriched by the elegance of the chromatic contrasts.

The sculptor employed the incastro technique for this group, which involves using different coloured marbles held together by pins and brackets. The technique dates to ancient times, as shown in numerous Roman sculptures. It was revived between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, to which period the Young Woman in fact dates. Collectors of this era favoured polychrome works: indeed, from the beginning of his career as a patron, Scipione Borghese paid much attention to the selection of materials for his commissions and in the arrangement of the family collection. We cannot exclude the possibility that the materials used for the work in question – statuary and nero antico or bigio morato marbles – may have been reprocessed ancient pieces. The yellow pedestal on which the sculpture was placed in 1607 has gone missing.

The question of the attribution of the work is complex and still not settled. While Nibby (1832, p. 85) ascribed it to Alessandro Algardi, De Rinaldis (Catalogo, 1948, p. 85) was the first scholar to suggest the name of Nicolas Cordier, who restored pieces of ancient art. Cordier was also the sculptor of the Gypsy Girl (inv. CCLXIII), which was also made from different materials and which is on display today in Room 10. While De Rinaldis’s proposal has been generally accepted by subsequent critics, other names have been put forth: pointing to the strong chromatic contrast and the stylised rendering of the woman’s garment, Pressouyre (1984, pp. 463-4) hypothesised that the work may be a product of the workshop of Giovanni Battista della Porta, which was active in the trade and production of coloured ancient marbles. More recently, however, Ioele reconfirmed the attribution to Cordier (Marmi colorati, 2016, pp. 96-7).

While Manilli (1650, p. 108) observed the work in Room 9, it had been moved to Room 19 by 1716 (Brigenti 1716, p. 80). During the redecoration work on the first floor of the Villa, it was placed in Room 6 on a large wooden pedestal which has since gone lost (Lamberti, Visconti 1796, II, p. 55). Nibby saw the sculpture in Room 3 in 1832 (1832, p. 85) and in Room 10 in 1841 (1841, p. 932). It was moved again, to Room 14, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Barbier de Montault 1870, p. 499; De Rinaldis 1935, p. 8); today it is displayed in Room 10.

Sonja Felici

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