Alone… (or Love Basket)

Costantino Barbella (Chieti 1852 – Rome 1925)

The small group, two young commoners kissing hidden by a wicker basket, was first presented at the 1879 Paris Exhibition where it was awarded a silver medal.
The small sculpture was particularly dear to Barbella who, in the most famous of his portraits executed by his friend Francesco Paolo Michetti, chose to have himself represented with the two works that made him most famous in the background: Love song (1877) and Alone (1879).
The success obtained by this sculpture at the Paris exhibition and the one in Milan in 1881, in fact, inaugurated the long fortune that the popular love theme had, leading to the creation of many replicas of this group, both in bronze and terracotta (another is in the Borgogna Museum in Vercelli).
The one exhibited here stands out for the technical expertise of its casting, entrusted by Barbella himself to the renowned Neapolitan foundry Laganà, as well as for the careful work of chiseling and patination carried out by the artist.
The work was purchased by the National Museum of Abruzzo in 2022.