Statue "Ratto delle Sabine"

Examination of the Ginori Manufactory in Doccia’s Inventory of models, which can be dated to between 1780 and 1791, reveals the attention paid to Florentine sculptors from the Renaissance period onwards. The models purchased from the Manufactory while it was under the management of Marquis Carlo Ginori and his son Lorenzo are concentrated on this period, with works ranging from Jacopo Sansovino to Michelangelo, and from Giambologna to Benvenuto Cellini. Ratto delle Sabine, well-known from the marble group sculpted by Giambologna in 1583 to decorate the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria, has a unique elegance, which fostered the success of the bronze miniature versions as shown by the examples present in the major European collections. Ratto delle Sabine in biscuit, shown here, derives from an 18th century bronze, as indicated in the Inventory of models, which gives the following description: “Ratto delle Sabine in terracotta. The original in bronze is in Casa Corsini [...]”. This bronze is still in the Roman collection at the Palazzo Corsini alla Lungara, now home to the National Gallery of Ancient Art. Francesco Lici, who was sent by the Manufactory to Rome in about 1753, made the plaster cast moulds of the city’s principal works – evidently not only of the Classical sculptures – to be made into porcelain versions. Like the Venere dei Medici (see Tables I), the fortunes of Ratto delle Sabine survived the decline of artistic porcelain during the epoch of the Universal Exhibitions which gave precedence to maiolica, and in fact the biscuit version participated in the Italian Exhibition