CARLO ALBACINI
(Fabriano 1734 – Rome 1813)

Boy with a Dove
Girl with a Nest
Late 18th century
Marble, h. 29.92 in.

Scholars have attributed the creation of this pair to the French sculptor Charles-Antoine Bridan, who, during his time in Rome, interpreted and adapted two ancient models from the Borghese collection. The two figures—known in the eighteenth century as the Borghese Putti or the Putti of the Villa Pinciana—derive, respectively, from a figure of a young boy (formerly in the collection of Guglielmo della Porta and documented in the Villa Borghese collection from 1609 onwards) and from the Cupid in Fetters (Amore in ceppi) from the same collection, where the two marble statues were displayed as a pair. […]

Carlo Albacini evidently also had access to the models created by Bridan and recognized their commercial potential. Documentation from his studio allows us to trace the execution of an initial pair starting as early as 1768; […]

Excerpt of the expertise by doc. Valeria Rotili