GIUSEPPE GRANDI -- scultura italiana

Speranza

Kaled, also known as Lara’s Page or Kaled on the Morning of Lara’s Battle,

by Giuseppe Grandi. 1872-73.

Materials: statue stone, marble, or terracotta painted white; base red sandstone.

Dimensions: statue approx. 1.4m high.

 Location: 193 Fleet Street, originally the shop of pawnbroker and jeweler, George Attenborough & Sons, at the west corner of the junction with Chancery Lane. London, WC2.

As Ward-Jackson explains, Khaled, a woman dressed as boy page, comes from Lord Byron's poem “Lara,” a tale of disguises and tragic love.

Ward-Jackson also relates that George Attenborough purchased the work a decade before he had it placed in a niche created for it.

Grandi, the Alfred Stevens of Italian sculpture, taught the generation that became, in essence, the Italian New Sculptors.

Those he taught and influenced created hundreds of works, particularly in cemeteries in Italy.

The figure on the left holds a spindle and wool in her hands and looks to the center past a beehive. A spinning wheel is visible behind her knee. The on the right holds a caduceus, symbol of commerce, in the crook of one arm while the other touches a tray or table with several small spherical objects, which could be fruit or balls of wool.

Bibliography

Ward-Jackson, Philip. Public Sculpture of the City of London. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2003.