ROMANELLI, Pasquale

(b. 1812 Firenze, d. 1887 Firenze)

Italian sculptor. He began his training at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence under Luigi Pampaloni but was soon taught by the foremost Tuscan neoclassical sculptor, Lorenzo Bartolini. Finding Bartolini’s favour, he went on to become his collaborator and, upon the master’s death in 1850, the successor of his studio.

Romanelli’s mythological and allegorical compositions were highly prized by a cosmopolitan clientele, and he exhibited select models in Paris. One such work, La Delusa, which he presented in 1851, was acquired by the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. In addition to collectors’ marbles, Romanelli executed numerous important commissions for monuments, such as those to Vittorio Fossombroni in Piazza San Francesco (Arezzo), monument to Alessandro Masi in the Certosa di Pavia, and Demidoff in Florence. Romanelli’s final tribute to his master, Bartolini’s tomb monument, is housed in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. His portrait of Lorenzo Bartolini is in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan.

After Romanelli’s death in 1887, his son Raffaello and grandson Romano continued his legacy which lives on to the present day; the Romanelli studio, now a private museum, remains a rare survival in Florence. Raffaello Romanelli (1856-1928) trained both with his father and at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze, where he subsequently ended up teaching.

Andromeda

Ovid tells in the Metamorphoses how Andromeda, daughter of an Ethiopian king, was chained to a rock by the sea-shore as a sacrifice to a sea-monster. Perseus, the son of Danaë slew the monster and released Andromeda. While most artistic representations of the myth depict the moment in which Perseus comes to Andromeda’s rescue, Romanelli represents the maiden in the midst of her peril, seemingly setting eyes on the monster for the first time.

Send Postcard Learn More

Ruth

The Old Testament heroine Ruth was a popular subject among 19th-century sculptors active in Italy; a famous depiction of the gleaning heroine by the American Randolph Rogers is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Book of Ruth is the eighth book of the Old Testament of the Bible. A short story, it tells how Ruth, the Moabite widow of a Bethlehemite, with her mother-in-law Naomi’s assistance, married an older kinsman Boaz, thereby preserving her deceased husband’s posterity and becoming an ancestor of King David.

Send Postcard Learn More

Venus and Cupid

This marble group combines classical subjects with the playful sentimentality of genre pieces. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, appears as a contemporary country girl rather than a classical deity. Romanelli composed several groups of Venus and Cupid, of which the present marble is among the most appealing.

Send Postcard Learn More