1732-1735

Allegorical Figure of Temperance

Italian, 1697 - 1768

This terracotta is a reduced version of a life-size marble sculpture of Temperance commissioned from Filippo della Valle for the Corsini family funerary chapel in the cathedral of St. John Lateran, Rome. Della Valle stayed close to the style and form of his original marble when he created this highly finished smaller work, which means that it could have been made as a presentation piece for a Corsini family member, as a record for the sculptor’s studio, or possibly as a high-end souvenir to be offered to travelers on the Grand Tour. The latter possibility is supported by the fact that the sculpture apparently entered the collection of the earls of Carlisle at Castle Howard, England, in the 1740s.