Ginevra

Hiram Powers, born Woodstock, VT 1805-died Florence, Italy 1873 · modeled 1842

Hiram Powers began modeling the first version of Ginevra immediately after he arrived in Florence in the late 1830s. The name Ginevra was inspired by the poem Italy by Samuel Rogers, which tells the story of a young bride who vanished on her wedding night and was found dead in a chest more than fifty years later. The only way the body could be identified was by a ring bearing the bride’s name, Ginevra. Almost twenty years after the original bust was modeled, Powers created a second version while visiting his daughter in England.