Giacomo Manzù - The Painter and the Model

Regarding subjects depicting the artist himself in his studio or at work, we can begin with illustrious examples dating back to the 17th century, coinciding with the growing awareness of the artist's role: we can cite Vermeer's "The Artist's Studio" or Velázquez's "Las Meninas." This type of subject also enjoyed some success in the 19th century, with the advent of realist movements in European art history, and the most famous example remains Gustave Courbet's "The Artist's Studio."

Even in such a minimalist work, characterized by a simplicity of expressive means, we can admire the distinctive features of Giacomo Manzù's artistic language. Thus, as in his sculpture, this etching is distinguished by the exaltation of plasticity that characterizes the Bergamo artist's research. A turgid plasticity, inspired by rounded forms, whose essentiality also hints at a taste open to the influences of architecture and design. What makes this work extraordinary is that Manzù achieves this exaltation of plasticity with simple expressive means. With a few lines, the artist, with a sculptor's flair, emphasizes the subject's volumes while simultaneously endowing it with a certain physiognomic and expressive character.

Giacomo Manzù is the pseudonym of Giacomo Manzoni, a sculptor born in Bergamo in 1908 and who died in Rome in 1991. After a brief stay in Paris, he moved to Milan in 1929, where he participated in an exhibition at the Galleria Il Milione. Some of his works were exhibited first at the Milan Triennale in 1933 and then at the 'Cometa' gallery in Rome. In 1940, he was appointed professor of sculpture at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, but soon moved to Turin and began teaching sculpture at the Accademia Albertina. In 1943, his nude Francesca Blanc won the Rome Quadriennale prize. After the war, he returned to teaching, first at the Brera Academy until 1954, and then in Salzburg until 1960. He worked on several monumental doors: the Door of Death for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (1964), the Door of Love for Salzburg Cathedral (1955–1958), and the Door of Peace and War for the church of Saint Laurens in Rotterdam (1965–1968). In 1979, he donated his entire collection to the Italian state. His last major work, a 6-meter-high bronze sculpture placed in front of the UN headquarters in New York, dates from 1989.

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