Santo Varni (Genoa 1807–1885) to a design by Michele Canzio (1787–1868)
Bust of Hercules
Bust Pan

white marble,1863
The Room of Time

The two busts of white marble were commissioned by Prince Odone of Savoy, son of Victor Emmanuel II. In accordance with the young prince’s passion for antiquities, the Genoese sculptor took as his model the faces of two centaurs of bigio morato marble from Hadrian’s Villa, on show in the Capitoline Museum since 1765. Santo Varni, who displays extraordinary technical skill here, was a point of reference for the local figurative culture and developed an approach that was to mark the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism in Genoese sculpture.