The Abduction of Proserpine

Francesco Maria Schiaffino (Genoa 1689–1765)
The Abduction of Proserpine
white marble,1720s
The Gallery of Mirrors

Drawing inspiration from the ancient myth circulated above all through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the sculptor captures the moment in which Pluto, god of the underworld, forcibly abducts Proserpine, daughter of the goddess Ceres, who raises her arm to the heavens in a desperate plea for help. Francesco Maria Schiaffino, who learned his craft in the studio of Camillo Rusconi in Rome, takes up a model by the master that was in turn based on the celebrated group by Bernini now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, whose accentuated dynamism gives way here to the more decorative approach typical of Rococo.