Description:  This bronze was acquired as by the leading Paduan sculptor Andrea Riccio, and cost the high price of £1000 in 1943. Riccio’s original model was of a solitary, sacrificial goat, in deliberate reference to both pagan and Old Testament rituals. This reflected contemporary humanist taste for art that synthesised classical and Christian interpretations. The Barber cast is one of numerous later variants after Riccio’s model. The shellbearing African boy is symbolic of untamed Nature and, when combined in this way, the billy-goat may simply represent male sexuality. The base is French 18th century.

Notes:  Cast: probably Padua, late 16th century