Giovanni Battista Lombardi (Italian, 1823-1880)

Born in Rezzato, Brescia, where he attended the School of Design, Giovanni Battista Lombardi studied under Lorenzo Vela in Milan and subsequently moved to Rome to work with Pietrò Tenerani on funerary monuments, busts and reliefs of religious and classical inspiration. Establishing his own studio with his younger brother, Giovito (d. 1876), Lombardi progressed to more genre and intimate subjects and was particularly keen on the portrayal of Old Testament heroines, such as the present figure of Ruth gleaning and a pendant figure of Susanna. Ruth, a biblical figure and the great-grandmother of David, is here represented with sheaves of corn, a reference to the fields of Boaz, whose fields she gleaned and whom she ultimately married following demonstrations of her virtue. This figure is amongst the artist's most recognizable works, and his studio produced it on a number of occasions and in various sizes.