Marble Relief of Pasuccia on Stand

This exquisite marble relief, which depicts a well-known local artist's model, Pascuccia, was carved in Rome in 1865 by Margaret Foley, a self-taught sculptor who was part of the large expatriate artistic community in that city. It was purchased there by an American collector who upon his return horne commissioned the frame and stand. Finely carved with a variety of surface treatments to add "color" to the white stone, the relief is rendered in a Neoclassical style that both Idealizes the subject and reveals her strong physiognomy. The stand, by an unidentified cabinetmaker, incorporates classical motives characteristic of the Renaissance Revival style fashionable in furniture at the time, such as the acanthus leaves, scrolls, and anthemia seen on the sides. A wide range of artistic expression was available to designers and collectors In the nineteenth century, and the Renaissance Revival style flourished simultaneously with the very different Rococo Revival style of the adjacent center table.