LUCA BOCHICCHIO Transported Art: 19Th-Century Italian Sculptures
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LUCA BOCHICCHIO Transported Art: 19th-Century Italian Sculptures Across Continents and Cultures Résumé Abstract Le caractère international de la sculpture du 19e siècle The international identity of 19th-century sculpture a été négligé durant plusieurs années et, par conséquent, has been neglected for several years, and, as a result, la recherche et les écrits du domaine de l’art ont presque artistic literature and research have almost completely totalement ignoré le fait que la plupart des sculptures ignored the fact that most 19th-century Italian italiennes du 19e siècle sont à présent répandues dans sculpture is now spread all over the world. The purpose le monde entier. Cet article a pour but d’illustrer et de of this essay is to illustrate and document peculiar documenter des aspects spécifiques de la diffusion de la aspects of the diffusion of Italian sculpture in America sculpture italienne en Amérique entre le milieu du 19e between the mid-19th and early 20th century. Along siècle et le début du 20e siècle. Parallèlement à ce flux with the flux of artwork, materials, and Italian d’œuvres d’art, de matériaux et de sculpteurs italiens sculptors to the Americas, over the decades straddling en direction des Amériques, au cours des décennies these two centuries there was an inverse movement of chevauchant ces deux siècles, il y eut un mouvement American artists (interested in Italian sculpture) to inverse d’artistes américains s’intéressant à la sculpture Rome, Florence, Genoa, Naples, and so on. Thanks to italienne qui se rendaient à Rome, Florence, Gênes, that double exchange, Italian sculpture became a strong, Naples, etc. Grâce à ce double échange, la sculpture recognized influence worldwide. The aim of this paper italienne obtint une forte influence et reconnaissance is to establish an interdisciplinary context for sculpture, dans le monde entier. Cet article a également pour clarifying the connections with social, economic, and objectif d’instaurer un contexte interdisciplinaire pour cultural factors. la sculpture, afin de clarifier les connexions entre les facteurs sociaux, économiques et culturels. This paper focuses on peculiar aspects of the or forgotten sculptors). Indeed, there was also wide international diffusion of Italian sculpture an inverse influx of important young American between the mid-19th and the early 20th sculptors in Europe (mainly in Paris, Rome, centuries. During that period a huge quantity of Munich, and Florence). Thanks to these two-way artwork was moved from Europe to both North movements, Italian sculpture became influential and South America. It consisted of sculptures of throughout the world. different kinds, made of different materials and Nevertheless, the international identity of realized by different Western artists (masters the 19th-century sculpture has been neglected such as Bistolfi, Bourdelle, Calandra, Carriere- in Italy for several years. For one, the sculpture Belleuse, Monteverde, Querol, Rodin, Story, Vela, of the 1800s was little studied by Italian scholars and Ximenes, as well as hundreds of unknown for almost all of the last century, compared to 70 Material Culture Review 74-75 (Spring 2012) / Revue de la culture matérielle 74-75 (printemps 2012) the historical avant-gardes. In addition, the The Causes of the Wide American links between Italian migrant communities and Diffusion of Italian Sculpture Italy have diminished since the 1930s. The main result of that neglect has been that Italian artistic In the 1800s, the historical capacity of sculpture literature, art exhibitions, and art research have to represent symbolically collective values and almost completely ignored the fact that most individual success acquired new momentum from the increase of bourgeois and republican 19th-century Italian sculpture is now spread all 2 over the world. ideals in Western society. The public spaces of Around the 1970s, critical perspectives on the growing metropolis become the backdrop for 19th-century sculpture started to change thanks the artistic representation of the new political and to events such as the conference on neoclassicism social course. In this framework, sculpture seems held in London in 1971 (Comité International to be the favourite medium of both the private d’Histoire de l’Art 1973), the very important and public clients. Indeed, sculpture spreads exhibition Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century throughout urban squares, buildings, gardens, Sculpture edited by Jeanne L. Wasserman and exhibitions but also in private residences and (1975), and the 24th conference of the Comité galleries (Sborgi 1984; Wasserman 1975). International d’Histoire de l’Art in 1979 ( Janson Moreover, compared to paintings, drawings, 1984). Moreover, in the last three decades, art and prints, sculpture needs a more complex historians have been involved in international system of processing, transport, and reproduction conferences and exhibitions focusing on the in order to be moved and diffused throughout relationship between Europe and America, different countries or regions. These social and especially on topics such as migration, art and technical aspects have to be considered in order 1 culture, and political and economic exchanges. to understand how and why a never-before-seen Between the end of the 20th and the begin- Atlantic circulation of sculptural artworks hap- ning of the 21st century, this kind of research pened between the early 19th and early 20th developed alongside the American studies on century. We can say that a significant diffusion specific artists, territories, or contexts related to of sculpture in the 1800s needed: 1) an open the presence of Italian art in North and South and renewed urban society; 2) the political or American countries (Pineda 1973; Soria 1993; collective will to build it as well as the financial Vignola 1996). Moreover, works such as those capacity to do it; 3) a modern and efficient set by Sandra Berresford (2007, 2009) or Rodrigo of infrastructures for transportation and com- Gutiérrez Viñuales (2004), as well as the meet- munication; 4) highly technical and artistically ings of the Association of Significant Cemeteries skilled people. in Europe (Felicori and Sborgi 2012), have To make an extreme simplification, in the recently proven that there is an international first half of the 19th century a lot of American approach to studying 19th-century sculpture countries gained independence from their involving scholars from all over the world. European colonizers (especially Spain, France, All these studies allow us to have a more and the United Kingdom). Obviously, these comprehensive look at the global movement of processes did not develop so linearly or easily, as sculpture between the 19th and the 20th century, is well demonstrated for example by Carmagnani which was very dynamic. In fact, French, English, (2003) and Codignola and Bruti Liberati (1999). Spanish, German, and American, not only Nevertheless, almost all North and South Italian, sculpture developed outside its national American countries had grown considerably, boundaries during the 1800s. In such a broad economically, demographically, and culturally, by Euro-American circulation, Italian sculpture the end of the century. held a very important role. For this reason, in On the opposite side of the Atlantic ocean, this paper I will address cases related to the Italian people above all were interested in joining mobility of both Italian artwork and materials, the growing American societies for two main rea- as well as the movement of artists and artisans sons. First of all, in the early decades of 1800s, the considered in terms of circulation of knowledge struggles for Latin American independence had and techniques. much in common with the repression of Italian Material Culture Review 74-75 (Spring 2012) / Revue de la culture matérielle 74-75 (printemps 2012) 71 revolutionary aspirations; Italian intellectuals and Italy for exhibitions but also for the decoration of insurgents as well as artists and politicians were public places and buildings in Buenos Aires (Fig. pushed to leave Italy and reach Latin America. 1). Even in the following decades, copies of the In that period, something similar was happening Pietà by Michelangelo or the Carità by Bartolini in the eastern United States, where the process of appeared in the cemeteries and hospitals of Latin strengthening the Republic had already begun. America and Europe as well. Numerous marble Secondly, as the process of independence in Latin and plaster objects were taken from Italy in order America strengthened, the ability of these coun- to be copied by students in new academies and tries to attract capital from abroad drew more art schools. Finally, at the end of the 1920s, Italy and more Italian tradesmen and businessmen, was exporting more marble objects than any alongside specialized art professionals such as other country. architects, painters, and sculptors (Sartor 2006), Of course, the valuable technical ability to the Americas. That trend carried on (with of Italian sculptors and carvers represents an- highs and lows) until the end of the century, when other important reason for the success of Italian the economic potential of both North and South sculpture in America. This is more evident if we America attracted a more consistent number of consider, for example, statistical data related to Italian families and non-specialized workers. Italian emigration to Argentina in the second In this complex interweaving of social