Statue, Bucranio - 48 cm - Wax - 1950

Statua/ wax model depicting a mythological deity

As mentioned, it is made of wax reinforced with plaster, depicting a man's head and the bucranium, an ornamental element for the Cult of the Mother Goddess.

On one side a young hunter, on the other the bucranium, or ox skull, present in Roman monuments and in Greek sacred contexts. The bucranium was used already in Mesopotamian ceramic of the 4th millennium BCE and in Egyptian funerary painting of the 2nd millennium BCE.

The statue is a maquette for lost-wax casting.

During the last two centuries the foundries have undergone a period of remarkable flourishing.
Their subjects, besides collectors, were also purchased by travelers as luxury souvenirs.

The subject is the second of a series of three made at the time.

Dimensions: 48x23x24 cm
Origin: Italy
Era: late 20th Century