A RARE BRONZE MODEL 'AT THE CROSSROADS'

This rare model depicts a young Christian girl, with her eyes closed standing at the crossroads between the Colosseum, where Christian martyrs were executed, and Domus Tiberiana, the Imperial Roman palace. The girl is facing towards the Colosseum, as if to say that she has already chosen her path.

A plaster version of the present work is in the collection of the State Russian Museum (G. Presnov, L. Fadeeva, et al., The Russian Museum Leningrad, Sculpture: 18th to Early 20th Century, Catalogue (Gosudarstvennyi Russkii Muzei, Skulptura XVIII-nachalo XX Veka, Katalog), Leningrad, 1988, p. 25, no. 48). A comparable model in marble was sold at Sotheby's, London, 13 December 2017, lot 99.