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拍品專文
Giulio Monteverde (d.1917) described by Bénézit as one of the pre-eminent maîtres of the Italian school was born in Bistagno, near Alessandria, and attended the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa between 1862 and 1865. He studied under the tutelage of the Italian sculptor, Santo Varni (d.1885) where he learnt to instill his work with realism and warmth. In 1865, he won the prestigious Pensionato Artistico Triennale and moved to Rome. Later he taught at the Accademia di Belle Arti and established his own studio.
His Romantic-Realist style achieved enormous success remarkably quickly, particularly in America where the first piece of modern sculpture to be purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was his life size marble of 1870, Il Colombo giovanetto (Young Columbus). He continued to explore the popular theme of heroes in childhood with Il Genio di Franklin (the Genius of Benjamin Franklin) 1871, (the Piazza dell'Indipendenza, Rome). Undoubtedly one of his most celebrated works is Jenner colto nell'atto di inoculare il vaccino del vaiolo al proprio figlio (Jenner vaccinating his own son against smallpox), 1873. As a master of the narrative verismo, Monteverde depicts the heart-rending dilemma of a father facing the risk of an untested vaccine on his own child in the name of the progress of science. The sculpture was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris where it won a gold medal, and is now in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Genoa. A bronze version of the sculpture, in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome had already been presented at the Universal Exposition of Vienna in 1873 with similar success.
Monteverde's considerable oeuvre also included important public monuments, such as Victor-Emanuel II (1880, Giardini Margherita, Bologna) and Vincenzo Bellini (1893, Piazza Stesicoro, Catania). Nearly sixty of the original plaster models for these, gifted by the late sculptor's daughters to the Municipality of Genoa in 1919, are now conserved in the collection of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in that city.
The present composition, Bambini che scherzano con un gatto (Children playing with a cat) is derived from one of Monteverde's early and recognized works of 1867 executed during his early years in Rome, now in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. It is a striking example of the sense of naturalism that Monteverde imbued in both his biographical and fictitious subjects. The figures in this example are modelled on the artist's own children: his daughter has been left to bathe her little sibling and their pet cat is tussling with the towel. The spectator is allowed a glimpse of an intimate family scene, unobserved by the children as they tease their pet. Every detail of hair, material, and even the split wood of the broken chair-back, is acutely portrayed. A version of this sculpture was exhibited in the 1869 Munich Exhibition from where it was acquired by Charles I (d.1891), King of Württemberg, its present whereabouts unknown (Katalog zur I. internationalen Kunstausstellung im Kniglichen Glaspalaste zu Mnchen, 20 July - 31 October 1869, p.89, no.75). It is entirely feasible that the Württemberg sculpture is in fact the present example, for it is similarly inscribed with the date 1869, furthermore there is no record of other extant models.
His Romantic-Realist style achieved enormous success remarkably quickly, particularly in America where the first piece of modern sculpture to be purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was his life size marble of 1870, Il Colombo giovanetto (Young Columbus). He continued to explore the popular theme of heroes in childhood with Il Genio di Franklin (the Genius of Benjamin Franklin) 1871, (the Piazza dell'Indipendenza, Rome). Undoubtedly one of his most celebrated works is Jenner colto nell'atto di inoculare il vaccino del vaiolo al proprio figlio (Jenner vaccinating his own son against smallpox), 1873. As a master of the narrative verismo, Monteverde depicts the heart-rending dilemma of a father facing the risk of an untested vaccine on his own child in the name of the progress of science. The sculpture was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris where it won a gold medal, and is now in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Genoa. A bronze version of the sculpture, in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome had already been presented at the Universal Exposition of Vienna in 1873 with similar success.
Monteverde's considerable oeuvre also included important public monuments, such as Victor-Emanuel II (1880, Giardini Margherita, Bologna) and Vincenzo Bellini (1893, Piazza Stesicoro, Catania). Nearly sixty of the original plaster models for these, gifted by the late sculptor's daughters to the Municipality of Genoa in 1919, are now conserved in the collection of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in that city.
The present composition, Bambini che scherzano con un gatto (Children playing with a cat) is derived from one of Monteverde's early and recognized works of 1867 executed during his early years in Rome, now in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. It is a striking example of the sense of naturalism that Monteverde imbued in both his biographical and fictitious subjects. The figures in this example are modelled on the artist's own children: his daughter has been left to bathe her little sibling and their pet cat is tussling with the towel. The spectator is allowed a glimpse of an intimate family scene, unobserved by the children as they tease their pet. Every detail of hair, material, and even the split wood of the broken chair-back, is acutely portrayed. A version of this sculpture was exhibited in the 1869 Munich Exhibition from where it was acquired by Charles I (d.1891), King of Württemberg, its present whereabouts unknown (Katalog zur I. internationalen Kunstausstellung im Kniglichen Glaspalaste zu Mnchen, 20 July - 31 October 1869, p.89, no.75). It is entirely feasible that the Württemberg sculpture is in fact the present example, for it is similarly inscribed with the date 1869, furthermore there is no record of other extant models.