1929 Carle LORENZETTI diana huntress
Carlo LORENZETTI (1858-1945)
Diana Huntress.
Aluminim (Please read below. This sculpture is of great interest due to the very avant-garde material used in 1929. An exhibition, where our work was exhibited, was recently devoted to this subject in Italy.)
Signed.
53cm high. 31cm width.
Litterature :
Catalog exhibition « Alluminio. Tra Futurismo e Contemporaneità » (Montevarchi, 2013)
(Aluminum. Between Futurism and Contemporaneity, a journey through Italian sculpture on the thread of the material)
The presence of this work, the Diane Chasseresse, in the exhibition 'Alluminio. Tra Futurismo e Contemporaneità' (Montevarchi, 2013) is essential to understanding its historical and aesthetic importance. This major retrospective, which traced the use of aluminum in Italian sculpture from Futurism to the contemporary period, highlighted the deliberate and avant-garde choice of this material by Lorenzetti. Aluminum, light, ductile, and born from industrial processes, embodies modernity, breaking with the classical canons of bronze or marble. Far from being a substitute, it is presented by the catalogue as an 'avant-garde medium' directly linked to the spirit of innovation of the early 20th century. By employing this metal, the work aligns itself with the approach of artists who made aluminum the symbol of speed, industry, and novelty, thereby validating the Diane Chasseresse as a key piece in this modern sculptural history..
Here is a summary of the entry/catalogue note for the sculpture
Carlo Lorenzetti was one of the most active sculptors on the Venetian art scene between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With a solid academic background (in the tradition of realism), he established himself as a highly regarded author of official portraits and honorary plaques.
His work is characterized by the naturalistic fidelity of the physiognomies, combined with a love for ornamental detail inherited from his youth apprenticeship as a woodcarver and decorator. This latter skill earned him an appointment as a professor at the Venetian School of Applied Art to Industry.
Throughout his career, Lorenzetti proved capable of adopting new stylistic influences. In his later years, he incorporated Art Deco (déco) formal solutions and was sensitive to the aesthetic dictates promoted by Giò Ponti in the magazine « Domus ».
It was in this very magazine, in 1929, that a photographic reproduction of the sculptural group « Diana cacciatrice » (Diana the Huntress) appeared.
The Diana cacciatrice Sculpture
The artwork presented at the exhibition (the aluminum version) is clearly a faithful copy of the original sculpted group, dated to 1929 or the period immediately following.
This period corresponds to the time when the use of aluminum was being experimented with in decorative interior sculpture (highlighting its avant-garde nature).
A bronze variant of the work (featuring a doe behind the goddess) has recently been sold at auction.
In defining the figure and its peculiar relationship with the leaping doe at her feet, Lorenzetti appears to have referenced the distant and essential Hellenistic iconography of the 'Diana' preserved in the Louvre, but filtered this influence through the recent stylistic treatments of animal subjects by artists like Libero Andreotti. There is also a possible Neo-Eighteenth Century taste (neo-settecentesco) that surfaced in early 20th-century Italian sculpture.
The publication of this bronze miniature of the Diana cacciatrice evidently sparked the interest of the Faenza ceramist Pietro Melandri, who created at least two majolica (faience) copies, along with a polychrome tile and a medallion, during the 1930s.
In summary, the note positions Lorenzetti as an academic sculptor capable of evolving toward modernism (Deco) and confirms that the aluminum version of his Diana cacciatrice is a historically significant piece linked to the experimentation of this new material in decorative art.
Diana Huntress.
Aluminim (Please read below. This sculpture is of great interest due to the very avant-garde material used in 1929. An exhibition, where our work was exhibited, was recently devoted to this subject in Italy.)
Signed.
53cm high. 31cm width.
Litterature :
Catalog exhibition « Alluminio. Tra Futurismo e Contemporaneità » (Montevarchi, 2013)
(Aluminum. Between Futurism and Contemporaneity, a journey through Italian sculpture on the thread of the material)
The presence of this work, the Diane Chasseresse, in the exhibition 'Alluminio. Tra Futurismo e Contemporaneità' (Montevarchi, 2013) is essential to understanding its historical and aesthetic importance. This major retrospective, which traced the use of aluminum in Italian sculpture from Futurism to the contemporary period, highlighted the deliberate and avant-garde choice of this material by Lorenzetti. Aluminum, light, ductile, and born from industrial processes, embodies modernity, breaking with the classical canons of bronze or marble. Far from being a substitute, it is presented by the catalogue as an 'avant-garde medium' directly linked to the spirit of innovation of the early 20th century. By employing this metal, the work aligns itself with the approach of artists who made aluminum the symbol of speed, industry, and novelty, thereby validating the Diane Chasseresse as a key piece in this modern sculptural history..
Here is a summary of the entry/catalogue note for the sculpture
Carlo Lorenzetti was one of the most active sculptors on the Venetian art scene between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With a solid academic background (in the tradition of realism), he established himself as a highly regarded author of official portraits and honorary plaques.
His work is characterized by the naturalistic fidelity of the physiognomies, combined with a love for ornamental detail inherited from his youth apprenticeship as a woodcarver and decorator. This latter skill earned him an appointment as a professor at the Venetian School of Applied Art to Industry.
Throughout his career, Lorenzetti proved capable of adopting new stylistic influences. In his later years, he incorporated Art Deco (déco) formal solutions and was sensitive to the aesthetic dictates promoted by Giò Ponti in the magazine « Domus ».
It was in this very magazine, in 1929, that a photographic reproduction of the sculptural group « Diana cacciatrice » (Diana the Huntress) appeared.
The Diana cacciatrice Sculpture
The artwork presented at the exhibition (the aluminum version) is clearly a faithful copy of the original sculpted group, dated to 1929 or the period immediately following.
This period corresponds to the time when the use of aluminum was being experimented with in decorative interior sculpture (highlighting its avant-garde nature).
A bronze variant of the work (featuring a doe behind the goddess) has recently been sold at auction.
In defining the figure and its peculiar relationship with the leaping doe at her feet, Lorenzetti appears to have referenced the distant and essential Hellenistic iconography of the 'Diana' preserved in the Louvre, but filtered this influence through the recent stylistic treatments of animal subjects by artists like Libero Andreotti. There is also a possible Neo-Eighteenth Century taste (neo-settecentesco) that surfaced in early 20th-century Italian sculpture.
The publication of this bronze miniature of the Diana cacciatrice evidently sparked the interest of the Faenza ceramist Pietro Melandri, who created at least two majolica (faience) copies, along with a polychrome tile and a medallion, during the 1930s.
In summary, the note positions Lorenzetti as an academic sculptor capable of evolving toward modernism (Deco) and confirms that the aluminum version of his Diana cacciatrice is a historically significant piece linked to the experimentation of this new material in decorative art.
REFERENCE: lo1610
