Proserpine

In the mid 1820s Hiram Powers learned to model clay and make plaster casts under the sculptor Frederick Eckstein in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1834 to 1836 Powers was in Washington, D. C., where he created busts of several American political figures including Andrew Jackson. He then moved to Florence where his talent was quickly recognized and where his studio became a major attraction for Americans making the Grand Tour. About 1839 Powers began to create ideal sculpture of heroic or mythological themes. His most famous work, "The Greek Slave" (1842), was shown in England and America where it garnered great acclaim as well as notoriety for its nudity. The plaster model for Proserpine" - the name is the Roman variant of Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring - was completed in 1843. In the first marble replica, Proserpine's breasts and shoulders emerge from an elaborate basket of flowers. Later marbles such as this version have simpler terminations as a result of the high cost incurred when the Italian carvers executed the basket and flowers in the replicas. "Proserpine" was Power's most popular ideal bust; he produced nearly two hundred marble replicas of it in full and reduced scale.