White marble Italian hound. Late 18h century

Height 90 cm.

The imposing sculpture, which depicts an Italian short-haired hound, an animal with very ancient origins that arrived in the peninsula as a racing dog via Phoenician merchants, belongs to that successful production of works on animal subjects which in the 18th century drew on models taken from classical times ancient.
In fact, we already find our dog represented in sculptures from the Roman era such as the Diana the huntress (Capitoline Museum of Rome), Diana in the act of shooting the arrow (Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums, Rome) where the sculpture of a " greyhound with collar” (fig.1), purchased by the Museum in 1771 and restored by the Papal sculptor Gaspare Sibilla in 1772, similar in posture to ours bloodhound. It was mainly artists such as Sibilla, Pacetti, Zoffoli and Cavaceppi or Franzoni from Carrara, active in the city in the second half of the eighteenth century, very skilled in restoration, reinvention and forgery, who spread the taste for the ancient among collectors and travelers of the Grand Tours.