John Gibson, 1790–1866, British, active in Rome, Italy
Title:
Aurora
Date:
between 1843 and 1845
Materials & Techniques:
Marble
Dimensions:
Overall: 20 1/2 x 12 x 7 1/8 inches (52.1 x 30.5 x 18.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1978.5
Gallery Label:
This is a small-scale reduction of the head and shoulders of a much larger statue. In the artist’s own words that statue represented “Aurora, Goddess of the morning, Mother of the stars and of the winds, just risen from the ocean with the bright star Lucifer glittering over her brow.” The subject was inspired by lines from John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), remembered while the artist strolled in the gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome: “Now Morn, her rosy steps in the Eastern clime / Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl.” Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016