1062 - G. Matarrese, Dante Alighieri, alabaster figure in white and grey, with cap and book, signed

G. Matarrese, Dante Alighieri, alabaster figure in white and grey, with cap and book, signed Alabaster, white and grey veined, standing figure of Dante Alighieri, signed with incised signature on the back of the plinth "G. Matarrese" and inscribed "317. w.G.", in a long robe with cap, head lowered, the left hand laid on the chest, a book under the right arm, on a flat rectangular plinth, robe in grey veined alabaster, in condition commensurate with age, chips, more pronounced on the base, adhesive residue on the back, H. 38 cm Cap, laurel wreath and book have been the established attributes of the Dante portrait since the 14th century: Giotto showed the poet in the Bargello in a red cap, Domenico di Michelino in Florence Cathedral in 1465 with the Divine Comedy in his hand, Botticelli around 1495 with the laurel wreath on his cap. The Dante cult of the 19th century culminated in the monument by Enrico Pazzi, erected on the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence in 1865 for the 600th anniversary of the poet's birth. The centre of Italian alabaster sculpture is Volterra in Tuscany, whose workshops exported through dealers throughout Europe and overseas from 1815 and joined together in the cooperative Artieri Alabastro in 1905.