ALMO BONALDI (Carrara, Italy, 1890 - Toulon, France, 1966). "Allegory of Music", ca. 1910, Art Nouveau. Carved Carrara marble fireplace screen on red veined marble pedestal. Signed and located: A. BONALDI / CARRARA. Measurements: 98.5 x 72.5 x 26.5 cm. Almo Bonaldi was born in Carrara, opening in 1924 a marble sculpture workshop in his hometown. The turning point for the artist came in 1930, when he presented a magnificent sculpture of a young centaur for a competition organized by the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara. From this date on he was known to work in Toulon, France, where he opened a company dedicated to marble, which supplied the city with stone for public works. This screen is a witness of the extreme virtuosity that Bonaldi reached before leaving for France, made around the second decade of the twentieth century. It develops in its center, in bas-relief, an allegorical scene where a nymph, perhaps Siringa, who seems to rise in ecstasy when listening to the music coming from two aulos played by a faun and a young woman, both at her feet. This main scene is surrounded by an exuberant frame of acanthus leaves, flanked by two little birds that seem to follow the rhythm of the music and, at the top, three singing "putti" that give voice to the wind instruments.