Cleto Capponi - The Tree of Life

The sculpture here, by Cleto Capponi, depicts two chimpanzees, specifically a parent holding the infant while it learns to hold itself to the branch of a tree—the tree of life, as envisioned in the work's title. From this detail alone, we can see how the work fully embodies the Futurist concepts of faith in the future and progress. In the same year as Marinetti's publication of the Futurist Manifesto, Cambridge was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Charles Darwin's masterpiece, which theorized the now-famous theory of evolution, which many saw as a celebratory work of the future, a concept so dear to the Futurist scene. The gesture of the elder helping and supporting the infant is a gesture of hope and faith in the future, a reminder of life as a symbol of optimism for the future.

Cleto Capponi delights us with this ceramic sculpture depicting two chimpanzees in the act of embracing. Although Cleto Capponi's poetics converge with futurist influences, in this case the sculptural representation has a figurative-realistic tendency. The artist's desire to preserve the animals' bodies in a naturalistic manner is particularly notable. Beyond this, we find it sufficient to say that, despite the animals' correct anatomy, they blend in with the branches they rest on. Stylistically, the sculpture is well-crafted with meticulous attention to detail.

Cleto Capponi was born in Ascoli Piceno in 1912. In 1922, at the age of 10, he had the opportunity to visit the "First Futurist Exhibition within the Provincial Art Exhibition," curated by Ivo Pannaggi, at the Palazzo del Convitto Nazionale in Macerata. Cleto Capponi was fascinated by the Futurist aesthetic, which included works by Balla, Boccioni, Depero, Sironi, and Pannaggi himself, with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in attendance. The young artist achieved fame in 1934 when, in a publication of Il Messaggero, Cleto Capponi created a caricature of the boxer Primo Carnera. From then on, he received important commissions for Il Messaggero and Il Popolo d'Italia. He also held important public commissions, including the "Monument to the Fisherman" in 1978 in San Benedetto del Tronto, and the Monument to Sailing in Grottammare in 1985. During his lifetime, he also taught art at the "G. Leopardi" State Middle School in Grottammare. He died in 2000.

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