Giovanni Della Longa, Sculpture Depicting Jesus Christ and a Seated Woman, 19th Century, Terracotta

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Description

Item description:
Wonderful terracotta sculpture, solid and therefore without a mold, entirely modeled by hand, a unique piece of great … Read more Item description:
Wonderful terracotta sculpture, solid and therefore without a mold, entirely modeled by hand, a unique piece of great artistic value, as can be clearly seen from underneath the base where the terracotta is not hollow but solid and massive, very heavy, weighing over 6 kg. The sculpture depicts Jesus Christ with a stone in his hand and a woman sitting immediately below him, in the parable of the adulteress, when he uttered the famous phrase "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." The sculpture is signed with the artist's signature engraved with a metal nib, "Della Longa Roma 1846." We are talking about a very old sculpture that is almost 200 years old. The beautiful patina is perfectly in line with the sculpture's age.

Useful information for evaluating the object:
From our research on the web, we found a terracotta very similar to ours, also from the 19th century with three figures, also with a religious theme, offered for over €4,000, although it is much larger than ours. We then found two terracotta sculptural groups, also with a religious theme, in the catalog of cultural heritage of Bologna compiled by Vincenzo Testoni and one in the catalog of cultural heritage of Genoa, preserved in the A. Tubino Civic Museum. You can easily find them too, very similar to ours in subject matter and artistic quality. All this is to give you an idea of the value of sculptures of this type.

Information about the artist and/or manufacturer:
The object was created by the Roman artist Giovanni Della Longa, a highly important engraver who was active during the 19th century. He was born in Rome in 1823 and died there in 1888, at the age of 65. This is most likely one of the very few sculptures he created, an extremely rare object, very old and of great collector's value.

Weight of the object: 6.025 kg


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