A NEAPOLITAN BRONZE OF THE SEATED MERCURY

Today the bronze Seated Mercury, possibly the most celebrated work of art discovered at Herculaneum or Pompeii in the 18th century, is grouped together with the other finds from the Villa of the Papyri in a setting in the National Museum of Naples; in antiquity too the statue had had to compete for a viewer's attention, sharing space around a fountain in the villa's peristyle with a Drunken Faun and two Wrestlers.
Giorgio Sommer together with the Chiurazi firm held the exclusive rights to produce bronze copies of Antique sculpture found in Pompeii, they also had a large selection of other Antique sculpture such as the seated mercury, but also the Farnese bull, Narcissus, all in all they produced a catalogue of some 3000 anique sculptures which could be ordered in various sizes. The present lot, is one of the largest versions of the seated Mercury and is a particularly fine cast.