A small patinated bronze figure of a dancing faun, cast after the celebrated antique original excavated in the House of the Faun at Pompeii — one of the most widely reproduced subjects of the Grand Tour bronze trade. The figure is modelled in the familiar pose: poised on the balls of both feet, one arm raised in a snapping gesture, head thrown back and crowned with a wreath.
Sand-cast in bronze, with a dark, worn patina consistent with age. The underside retains the rough, pitted surface characteristic of nineteenth-century Neapolitan sand-casting, a useful indicator of period manufacture rather than a later reproduction. The figure is unsigned and bears no foundry mark; while attributed examples by houses such as Chiurazzi and Sommer command a premium, the majority of smaller Grand Tour souvenir bronzes produced in Naples for the tourist trade left the workshop unmarked, and this remains true to type. Mounted on its integral square bronze plinth.
Specifications
• Material: patinated bronze, sand-cast
• Height: ca. 11 cm
• Origin: Naples, Italy
• Period: circa late 19th century
• Foundry mark: none (unsigned)