Italian Novecento, Reclining Male Nude, Patinated Bronze Sculpture, ca. 1930

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Seller: ashvillegallery ✉️ (52) 100%, Location: New York, New York, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 121978100544 Italian Novecento, Reclining Male Nude, Patinated Bronze Sculpture, ca. 1930.

Reclining Male Nude

Novecento Italiano

Monumental Bronze Sculpture

Ca. 1930

Dimensions:

Height: 22 3/4 inches

Width: 28 1/2 inches

Depth: 6 3/4 inches

Weight: approximately 150 lbs.

Monumental in its dimensions and weight yet light in perception and elegant, the strong and muscular figure of a nude half-man - half-god, reclining against a stepped marble base is a true masterpiece of Art Deco sculpture, created in Italy circa 1930s by an unknown artist. Foundered in bronze and rendered in black and green patina with amazing subtlety in the best traditions of one of the strongest Italian art movements of the period, Novecento Italiano.

A strange and exciting combination of neoclassical grace embodied into a form that absolutely follows the formal canons of Art Deco, and certain spiritual content, glorifying the human spirit and the body to the divine ideal -   thus creating a new standard of superman, perfect enough not to need any clothes, to decorate or improve himself. On the contrary, his nakedness exalts him above all.

Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark (1903 –1983), a world-famous British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians and aesthetes of his generation, in his book The Nude, published in 1956, puts it with perfection:

"To be naked is to be deprived of our clothes and the word implies some of the embarrassment which most of us feel in that condition. The word nude, on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenseless body, but of a balanced, prosperous and confident body: the body re-formed."

Novecento Italiano art movement was founded by Lino Pesaro, a gallery owner interested in modern art, and Margherita Sarfatti , a writer and art critic who worked on Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s newspaper, The People of Italy (Il Popolo d'Italia ). Margherita Sarfatti was also Mussolini’s mistress. Motivated by a post-war "call to order ", they brought a group of artists together, and the new art movement was officially launched in 1923 at an exhibition in Milan ; with Mussolini as one of the speakers.  The group in the original lineup was also represented at the Venice Biennale of 1924 in a gallery of its own. After the group finally formed, the new Novecento Italiano staged its first group exhibition in Milan in 1926.

Several of the artists were WWI veterans; Sarfatti had lost a son in the war. The group wished to take on the Italian establishment and create an art associated with the rhetoric of Fascism . The artists supported the Fascist regime and their work became associated with the state propaganda department, although Mussolini reprimanded Sarfatti for using his name and the name of Fascism to promote Novecento movement.

The name of the movement (which means 1900s) was a deliberate reference to great periods of Italian art in the past, the Quattrocento and Cinquecento (1400s and 1500s). The group rejected European Avant-garde art and wished to revive the tradition of large format history painting and sculpture in the classical manner. It lacked a precise artistic program and included artists of different styles and temperament, aiming to promote a renewed yet traditional Italian art. The artists of Novecento Italiano would not imitate the world created by God but would be inspired by it.

Despite official patronage, Novecento art did not always have an easy ride in Fascist Italy. Mussolini was personally uninterested in art and divided official support among various groups to keep artists on the side of the regime. Opening the exhibition of Novecento art in 1923 he declared that “it is far from my idea to encourage anything like a state art. Art belongs to the domain of the individual. The state has only one duty: not to undermine art, to provide humane conditions for artists, to encourage them from the artistic and national point of view." 

The movement was in competition with other pro-Fascist movements, especially Futurism and the regionalist Strapaese movement. Novecento Italiano also met outright opposition. Achille Starace , the General Secretary of the Fascist Party, attacked it in the Fascist daily press and there was virulent criticism of its “un-Italian" qualities by artists and critics.

The unity of the group depended much on Sarfatti and it weakened in her absence from Milan. When she lost her influence with Mussolini, the group fell apart and was formally disbanded in 1943.

Artists of the Novecento Italiano art movement:

         Giacomo Balla

         Anselmo Bucci

         Pompeo Borra

         Aldo Carpi

         Carlo Carrà

         Felice Casorati

         Giorgio de Chirico

         Raffaele De Grada

         Fortunato Depero

         Antonio Donghi

         Ercole Drei

         Leonardo Dudreville

         Achille Funi

         Virgilio Guidi

         Achille Lega

         Gian Emilio Malerba

         Arturo Martini

         Pietro Marussig

         Francesco Messina

         Giorgio Morandi

         Ubaldo Oppi

         Renato Paresce

         Siro Penagini

         Gino Severini

         Mario Sironi

         Mario Tozzi

         Francesco Trombadori

         Adolfo Wildt

         Giovanni Ponti

 

Important Notes:

DESCRIPTION & CONDITION: Please observe photos carefully, as they are a significant part of the description. Any potential defect shown in the photos, but not mentioned in the description will be considered as described. We guarantee the authenticity of all items to be as represented. Ashville Fine Arts Gallery specializes in a variety of fine art, antiques, jewelry, collectibles and rare finds. If you have not seen something that interests you or that you collect, please visit often and check our ever expanding inventory. We make a best effort to provide a fair and descriptive condition report. Please examine the photos attentively, as they are an integral part of item descriptions. 

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  • Condition: Excellent vintage condition, wear consistent with age and use.We make our best effort to provide a fair and descriptive condition report. Send message to this seller to request more details or discuss price.
  • Unit of Sale: Single-Piece Work
  • Artist: Unknown
  • Size: Medium (up to 36in.)
  • Color: Black patinated bronze/White marble
  • Material: Bronze & marble
  • Region of Origin: Italy
  • Subject: Figures & Nudes
  • Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
  • Type: Statue
  • Year of Production: ca. 1930
  • Placement: Table
  • Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
  • Item Height: 22.79
  • Style: Novecento Italiano
  • Original/Reproduction: Original
  • Largest Dimension: 2ft.-5ft.
  • Item Width: 28.5
  • Culture: Roman
  • Time Period Produced: 1900-1949

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