These two white marble sculptures depict a Young boy and a Young girl seated on a base evoking a rocky outcrop, holding garlands of flowers and fruit. The sculptor played with textural contrasts: the chisel marks on the cliff create an opaque texture, in contrast with the drapery and polished skin of the two putti. The Young boy, nude, is positioned on the left, while the Young girl, her hair styled in a chignon, is on the right. Designed for a frontal view, these works were likely intended to adorn a console or a fireplace mantel, as evidenced by their unfinished backs.
Their style recalls Camillo Rusconi’s Seasons, created between 1692 and 1695 for Marquis Niccolò Maria Pallavicini, before entering the collections of George I of Hanover. However, the exceptional quality of these sculptures rules out the possibility that they were made by a mere follower of Rusconi. They are attributed to Francesco Maria Schiaffino (1688-1763), who was Rusconi’s pupil in Rome between 1720 and 1724. After returning to Genoa, Schiaffino drew inspiration from his master’s inventions, as seen in works like The Rape of Proserpine (1724-1725) and Justice (1739-1741). Stylistic details, such as the incised eyes, the hair treated with the gradina, and the elongated facial profiles of the cherubs, confirm this attribution.
These sculptures reveal the hand of the master. They are dated between 1725 and 1730, a period during which Schiaffino developed a personal style based on Camillo Rusconi’s models, tempering the severe classicism of the Lombard master with the grace characteristic of 18th-century Genoese sculpture.

Full study and price upon request.