Austro-German or Central European area, late 19th – early 20th century
Important white marble bust depicting a female figure with long flowing hair whose face transforms into a skeletal mask, an intense allegory of vanitas and memento mori typical of Fin de Siècle Symbolist culture.
The work has a strong expressive charge, played out on the contrast between sensuality and dissolution, eros and death, central themes in the decadent and Symbolist imagination of North-Central Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The quality of the sculpture, evident in the refined workmanship of the surfaces, the rendition of the hair, and the anatomical modeling of the facial cavities, suggests a cultured production, probably attributable to the Austro-German or Central European area.
White marble with patina of age. Ebonized wood turned base.
Dimensions: height 46 cm; width approx. 26 cm.
Total depth of the torso 16.5 cm
Base width approx. 19 cm.
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