There is a dealer at an antique mall near Boston I frequent who has been doling out late 19th century Grand Tour albumen prints of sculptures in the collection of the Napoli Museo (National Archaeological Museum of Naples) a few at a time--and I keep snapping them up. The marble sculpture here was long thought to portray the Empress Agrippina the Younger, or "Minor" --- wife of Claudius and mother of Nero-- but that attribution was changed in the early 20th c. (Agrippina Major and Minor had died by 59 CE, both in their forties, with this portrait dated to well after that period.) What I love about her, whoever she is, is how completely relatable she seems-- I can almost picture her, in the flesh, sitting on the front porch of a humble house in the summer, quietly holding her thoughts to her self...perhaps while her husband rambles on and on, or whittles away, or as she waits for him, or a teenaged child, to arrive safely home. Or perhaps she's mulling over a decision of global consequence. All with her hair in curlers:) So very full of humanity to me.
Included is a small page of notes, written I believe by whoever originally purchased the photo on their Grand Tour.
Albumen paper print: 9 7/8" x 7 3/4". With original paper sleeve: 15" x 12. Some toning/light creasing at corners from being tucked into sleeve for a long time.
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