Puccini
Named after the composer Giacomo Puccini, who donated the body from his bust so that I could append a deer’s skull to it. (Parts of the head can be found in the piece Giacomo.)
The dome is Victorian, and was made to house a taxidermy object, and in a sense that’s what it’s doing here. Hanging on the left is a crocodile tail in a test-tube. You’ll find the front end of the crocodile in Oriana.
The base once belonged to a standard lamp.
The deer’s skull fits remarkably neatly onto Puccini’s body, which I painted to make the two more coherent. I briefly experimented with a pair of eyes, but decided one was sufficient.
The crystal ball that hangs from the chain is a decoration from an antique chandelier. Gaze into it, if you like, and see if you can foretell the future.