2020 EXHIBITORS

GALLERIES/Benappi Fine Art

Ignazio and Filippo Collino

1724 - 1793 and c.1737 - 1800

Priest and Priestess

c. 1785

Marble, sculpted fully in the round

84 × cm. (33 ⅛ × in.)

Signed "Fratres Collini Taurinenses Invenerunt Et Fecerunt"

PROVENANCE:

Vittorio Amadeo III of Savoy, King of Sardinia;
Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, King of Naples;
Heim gallery, London, 1972;
Europe, private collection.

LITERATURE:

Carte Vernazziane, manoscritto F. VII, Turin, Accademica delle Scienze, July 1785, p.13;
G. Vernazza, Elogio del Collino, in “Biblioteca Oltremontana”, 1793, IV, p.290;
A. Baudi di Vesme, Schede Vesme. L’arte in Piemonte dal XVI al XVIII secolo, Turin 1963-1982, vol.I, pp.200 and 335;
P. Astrua, Le scelte programmatiche di Vittorio Amedeo duca di Savoia e re di Sardegna, in “Arte di Corte a Torino da Carlo Emanuele III a Carlo Felice”, ed. by S. Pinto, Turin 1987, p.97;
A. Bacchi, Ignazio e Filippo Collino: “l’Ercole” e “Onfale” per i Conti del Nord, in “Arte all’incanto“, Milan 1991/1992, pp. 304 and 310, fig.4 and 5.

EXHIBITION HISTORY:

Paintings & Sculptures 1770-1830, exhibition at Heim Gallery, London, autumn 1972, cat. no. 24-25, p.16.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The two Collino brothers, Ignazio (1724 - 1793) and Filippo (c.1737 - 1800), worked very closely together, so much so in fact that it has become almost impossible to distinguish their individual hands. In 1763, just prior to their return from Rome, Ignazio was appointed court sculptor to Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia.

We know from surviving documents that the Priest and Priestess, shown here, were sent as a gift in June 1785 by King Vittorio Amedeo III of Savoy to the King of Naples Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. Previously interpreted as Apollo and Vestal, following the link between the Priestess and the terracotta Sacrificing Vestal, now in Accademia Albertina in Turin. The two statues are not dated, but are clearly in line with the stylistic moment of the Collino brothers around 1780, during which time they were working on the funeral monument to Charles Emmanuel III, completed in 1786. These two sculptures therefore belong to the mature period of the brother's production, at the height of their prominence in the Court of Savoy.