Selika et Nelusko

Description of the artwork

After receiving many awards in his own country, from 1870 Pagani began to contribute actively to international exhibitions. In 1872 he exhibited this superb pair of busts in the Central Hall of the Royal Academy in London, as nos. 1509 and 1510.  

Combining white marble with patinated bronze, the busts represent Nelusko and Selika, protagonists of L’Africaine, an opera by the German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). Very popular in the decades following its first performance in Paris in 1865, the opera is an account of the capture of Nelusko and Selika, sovereigns of an imaginary far-off land, by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Meyerbeer’s work enjoyed such popularity that the Italian sculptor Pietro Calvi (1833-1884) also showed a bust of Selika at the same Royal Academy exhibition (no. 1525).

In the combination of materials used, as well as the theme of non-Western figures, these two busts are perfect examples of ethnographic sculpture in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although they portray fictional characters, these works reflect the trend initiated by Charles Cordier and the series of polychrome busts he produced from 1850 for the new ethnographic galleries of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. With their romantic vision of African and Oriental cultures, both Cordier and Pagani emphasized the dignity of their subjects and attached much importance to costume. The present busts are remarkable for the detailed depiction of the materials represented, especially the feathers of the figures’ headdresses and the fur of their robes. 

This pair of busts is the only one signed and dated by Pagani. A second pair, now in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum (Bournemouth, inv. nos. SC22 and SC20), closely comparable to the present pair but without the names of the sovereigns inscribed on cartouches, was formerly attributed to Pietro Calvi. Finally, an undated bust of Selika alone was sold in London in 2012 (Bonham’s 5 July 2012).

Origin

Christie's, New York, October 28, 2003, lot 170 ;
Christie's, London, July 9, 2015, lot 15 (sold for £242,500)
Peter Glenville and Hardy William Smith Collection

Literature

The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1872, The 104th., 1872, p. 60.
Vincenzo Vicario, Gli Scultori Italiani dal Neoclassicismo al Liberty, Lodi, 1990, pp. 474-5.
A. Panzetta, Nuovo dizionario degli scultori italiani dell’octticento e del primo novecento, Turin, 2003, p. 674.