In the second half of the eighteenth century, the Roman workshop and foundry of the Valadier family was among the most famous in the eternal city and was distinguished for their innovative designs and superior quality of workmanship. 

This bronze model of the great ancient sculpture of Ariadne in the Vatican collection, finds similarities with a version of it that Luigi Valadier (1726 - 1785), made for Gustav III of Sweden. The present work is initialled ‘A V’, which could link our work to Luigi’s father, the goldsmith and founder of the family workshop: Andrea Valadier (1695 - 1759). Many of Luigi’s early designs were created under the influence of his father. Although this particular cast dates from the early 19th century, the original mould and model from which it was cast could have been made much earlier, perhaps by Luigi’s father - hence the existence of the ‘A V’ initials.

After the death of Luigi, the posthumous inventory of his studio included: “a painted fired clay statuette of Cleopatra” (ASR, 30 Not Capitolini, uff. 30, notaio Monti Silvestro, III party, f.226v.). The ‘Registro’ of 1810, notes that the “fired clay Cleopatra” inventoried in 1785 was still in the Valadier manufactory, along with a plaster mould and a wax figure of the subject (Vale 2017c, 196, 245; A. Gonzaléz-Palacios in Ricordi dell’Antico 2008, 158, Gonzaléz-Palacios 2018, 481). This indicates that the Valadier workshop was probably still making this model for ‘well-heeled’ Grand Tourists, in the early 19th century. 

This statuette is a fine replica of the sensuous ancient sculpture acquired by Pope Julius II in 1512 for the Vatican’s Belvedere Courtyard. There it was placed upon an ancient marble sarcophagus and used as decoration for a fountain. The famed antiquity is a roman copy of a Hellenistic original that was most likely made in the second century B.C. It was previously identified as Cleopatra, rather than Ariadne, due to the snake-shaped bracelet on her arm. This feature is an iconographic attribute associated with Cleopatra through her apparent suicide by snakebite.

Luigi Valadier’s career spans most of the second half of the eighteenth century, the period when Rome was one of the main cities visited by foreigners on the Grand Tour, many of whom were clients of the artist. Archeological finds were bringing antiquity back to the fore, inspiring a stylistic shift that we now describe as Neoclassicism, indeed, Luigi’s work became more severe and classical over time.