Tête de vieille femme italienne, dite Mère de la Palombella

Executed in 1857 during Carpeaux's Roman residency, this study of an elderly Italian woman's head — known as the 'Mother of the Palombella' — exemplifies the type of character study that Prix de Rome pensionnaires were encouraged to undertake as part of their Italian formation. The Palombella was a Roman festival held at the Pantheon on the day of Pentecost, involving the release of doves, and local figures associated with these popular Roman traditions were natural subjects for French artists fascinated by Roman popular culture. Carpeaux had arrived at the Villa Medici in 1856 and was immediately drawn to the Italian people as subjects, in contrast to the more formally prescribed ancient subjects his scholarship required. This head study on wood belongs to a category of intimate character portraiture that Carpeaux practiced throughout his Italian years, building a vocabulary of human types observed directly from life. Such studies fed into his major Roman works and established his exceptional ability — unusual among sculptor-painters — to render aged, expressive faces with both structural exactness and emotional depth.

Painted on wood panel, which provides a firm, smooth ground suited to precise character study. The modelling of the aged face employs careful tonal gradation to render the complex forms of elderly skin and bone structure. Carpeaux's sculptural eye is evident in the way the head is apprehended as a three-dimensional form, with light defining its projecting planes.