ANTONIO CORRADINI – MASTER OF VEILED FIGURES

Continuing our thread “Found on the web” which we started in the previous edition of Kurier Kamieniarski, today we present an artist who does not let his works pass unnoticed. Here are the results of our browse through the virtually inexhaustible resources of the Internet.     We recently came across a photograph of a marble bust of a veiled woman. The delicacy and incredible realism of rendering the transparent fabric covering the woman’s face is just admirable. The author of the sculpture entitled “Bust of a veiled woman” (Puritas) is Antonio Corradini – a Venetian rococo sculptor born 1668 in Ester, Italy. He started his creative work already at the age of 14-15. He travelled a lot. At first he spent a lot of time in Russia sculpting eighteen busts and two statues in the summer garden of Tsar Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. Then he worked in Germany. In the middle of 1720 he returned to his native Italy. Further commissions came from the Austrian Empire, however, so he settled in Vienna. Following the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740, he lost his commissions in Austria and settled in Italy (Rome and Venice) again. The artist’s last move took him to Naples. There he worked on a sculpture in the Sansevero Chapel (Capella Sansevero de Sangri or Pietatella) in the centre of Naples, commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro. Unfortunately, it was also here that he died in 1752 before completing his life’s work. The subsequent fate of this commission was interesting. Corradini left completed sketches and a model of the sculpture “Christ of Yemen under the Shroud”. The realisation of the sculpture was entrusted after Corradini’s death to another Italian sculptor – Giuseppe Sanmartino. In the final realisation he interpreted Corradini’s materials in his own way. This is probably why he is signed as the author of the work. But even today, looking at other works by Corradini, it is hard not to notice the artist’s serious influence on the final realisation. In Naples, in addition to working on “Christ of Yemen under the Shroud” he created “Veiled Truth” (also called “Modesty or Chastity”), a remarkable tomb monument dedicated to Cecilia Gaetani dell’Aquila d’Aragona, mother of Raimondo de Sangro. As an art critic Bruce Voucher once wrote: “This is not a work inspired by the desire to present an ingenious sculpting technique. The face shielded by the thinnest of veils creates an intriguing but ironic tension, perhaps a little unsuited to a monument in a sepulchral chapel, but one that is meant to force the mind into deeper thought and recollection.” Anyway, we conclude with leaving the judgment to our readers, who will be able to find more on Corradini’s work when visiting our fanpage: www.facebook.com/KurierKamieniarski.       Sourse: Kurier kamieniarski Author: Kurier Kamieniarski | Published: 05.03.2015