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796
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Sleeping Child Jesus, Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome, ? – M…
See original version (Spanish)
796
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Sleeping Child Jesus, Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome, ? – M…
See original version (Spanish)
Estimate €18,000 - €25,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Sleeping Child Jesus, Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome, ? – Madrid, 1669), 17th-century Italian school
A polychrome terracotta sculpture by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Morelli, depicting a little boy sleeping next to a skull. It is a work belonging to the ‘vanitas’ genre, which serves to remind us of the fragility of life and the brevity of existence. This particular work belongs to the so-called ‘Nascendo morimur’ (“just as we are born, so we die”) tradition, in which the infant or young Child Jesus is usually depicted next to a skull or some other symbol of death. The artist, the Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Morelli, served as court sculptor to the King of Spain from 1664, working for Philip IV and Charles II. Bibliography: AGULLÓ, Mercedes, and PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ, Alfonso E.: ‘Juan Bautista Morelli’, Spanish Art Archive, vol. XLIX, no. 194, Madrid, 1976, pp. 109–120. Dimensions: 26 × 47 × 21 cm
See original version (Spanish)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
GRAND JULY AUCTION – FINE ART, OLD MASTERS AND JEWELLERY
Auction location
Auction time
07/15/2026 at 3:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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