Bacchic celebration
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Sculptor
Luigi Frullini (1839-97)
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Detail
Walnut
Italian (Florence), 1890
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Signed and labelled
L. Frullini fece (carved in wood on front of panel)
Frullini studio label on reverse inscribed:
‘Prof Luigi Frullini Cavalier Mauriziano, e della Légion d’Honneur e della Corona d’Italie’ (centre), ‘sa – Piazza dell’Unita, 10, p. ter.’ (bottom left), and ‘Studio – Via S. Caterina, 8’ (bottom right)
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Provenance
[Perhaps Sydney Backus and/or Marguerite Backus, USA]; Sally Backus, and her husband Sir Brian Neil (1923-2018)
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Collection
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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Note
Investigation is continuing to establish the original provenance of this carving. However the punning connection between the Backus family and Bacchus is likely not a coincidence, and thus there is a probable early American history to be discovered.