Lot 85: - Luigi Bienaimé (1795-1878) Italian, 19th century , bust of Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755 –1843) white marble

signed and dated: L. Bienaimé f. Roma 1821 white marble

measurements note 51cm., 20in.

Luigi Bienaimé is best known as one of Bertel Thorvaldsen's most dedicated followers. Together with his brother Pietro Antonio, Bienaimé was employed in Thorvaldsen's studio finishing the master's work and carving authorised versions of his models. Bienaimé had arrived in Rome from Carrara in 1818 on a scholarship funded by the Accademia di Belle Arti e Liceo Artistico. By 1827 he was head of Thorvaldsen's studio whilst also producing commissions from his own designs. Bienaimé's own reputation grew to be international and his independent works were purchased by Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Duke Alessandro Torlonia and William Spencer Cavendish, 6υth Duke of Devonshire.

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was the founder of homeopathy. He studied medicine at Leipzig, Vienna and Erlangen before taking a post as a village doctor in Mansfeld, Saxony in 1781. After three years in that practice he turned to research postulating that like cures like. A treatment, which he named homeopathy, was developed from this central principal. Homeopathic medicine was made from natural animal, plant and mineral sources diluted to many magnitudes in a technique which gathered supporters across Europe and is still popular today. Hahnemann published his major treatise on the subject, his Organon der rationellen Heilkunde or Organon of Rational Healing in Dresden in 1810. He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

RELATED LITERATURE
A. Panzetta, Nuovo Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell'Ottocento e del Primo Novecento, Turin, 2003, vol. 2, p. 91