Italian Marble Furietti Centaurs

These remarkable Italian marble objets d'art are based on two of the most famous classical sculptures ever found, the Furietti Centaurs. These Roman marble centaurs were excavated together at Hadrian's Villa in December of 1736. The duo was named for Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti, a Roman Catholic cardinal and collector of antiquities who led the excavations at the site of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. The centaurs were undoubtedly Furietti's most significant find, and when Pope Benedict XIV demanded the sculptures for the Church's collection, Furietti refused, an act of defiance that cost him his cardinal's hat. Following Furietti's death in 1764, Pope Clement XIII eventually managed to secure them for the Capitoline Museum (Rome), where they remain to this day.

Wildly popular when they were discovered in the 17th century, the centaurs were the subject of a number of reproductions in the decades and centuries that followed. While most examples of these figures on the market today are bronze reductions, this pair is an exceptionally rare 19th-century Italian creation crafted from outstanding white marble. They are almost certainly objects from the Grand Tour, though in another testament to their rarity, these stately centaurs are larger than typical Grand Tour souvenirs.

19th Century

13 3/4" wide x 6 5/8" deep x 19 5/8" high
With base: 17 3/4" wide x 10 5/8" deep x 6 1/4" high