La Sorpresa

Cesare Lapini was a sculptor of allegorical and genre subjects and models after the Antique which he sold with great success from his Florence workshop to an elite global clientele. His unique compositions of partially disrobed maidens, such as La Sorpresa. The Galleria Lapini exhibited an impressive number of such statues at the Paris 1900 Exposition universelle, the Esposizione Generale Italiana di Torino in 1884, and the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.