Cupids with Butterfly - Item #30

  16 Inches High x 12 Inches Wide x 2 Inches Deep This piece is a fragment of Cupids with Garland (Item #194). In the elegant scene, cupids or cherubs in high relief play in the foreground with a garland while details of the setting are sculpted in shallow relief in the background. Here, on the left side of the original, two cupids attempt to catch a butterfly. The third figure looks surprised at his position on the ground. Our antique P.P. Caproni and Brother catalogs identified the artist as Pietro Ghiloni. However, there were two artists with that name during the turn of the 20th century: the Italian sculptor, decorator, and marble worker who was active in New York and New Orleans (1864-1932), and the sculptor who was also an assistant to sculptor George Grey Barnard. There is not much information to be found on either artist.   Artist: Pietro Ghiloni Time Period: Modern, early 20th century 1911 Catalog ID # - 13552   Sources: Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918. Editors