Talk:Vincenzo Vela

Update request article «Vincenzo Vela»
Dear users,

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of the sculptor Vincenzo Vela (1820-1891), the Museo Vincenzo Vela (Ligornetto, Switzerland) proposes an update and a completion of this article «Vincenzo Vela», based on the latest research carried out by experts on the artist. The Museo Vincenzo Vela, run by the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), is a public institution, resulting from the legacy of the artist's house and its collections to the Swiss Confederation, at the behest of Vincenzo and his son Spartacus Vela (1854-1895).

The Museo Vincenzo Vela suggests a modification of the article «Vincenzo Vela» (see below) which should be applied to the main Swiss national languages (German, French, Italian) and English by a neutral editor user of the Wikipedia Community.

In the case if this proposal can not be accepted in its entirety, the Museo Vincenzo Vela kindly asks you to leave this proposal on the Talk page as guideline on the figure of Vincenzo Vela.

The Museo Vincenzo Vela thank you for your valuable cooperation and remains available for any clarification or request.

Best regards

Federal Office of Culture

Gianna A. Mina PhD, Director, Museo Vincenzo Vela

www.museo-vela.ch

--VV 1820-1891 (talk) 07:59, 6 May 2020 (UTC)

Vincenzo Vela (update)
Vincenzo Vela (Ligornetto, 3 May 1820 – 3 October 1891) was an internationally famous Swiss artist who introduced verism in Italian sculpture.

Contents

Biography

1820–1844: Ligornetto, childhood and training

1844–1853: Milan, early recognition

1853–1867: Turin, Italy's hope and international triumphs

1867–1891: Ligornetto, late work and legacy

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Other projects

Biography

1820–1844: Ligornetto, childhood and training

Vincenzo Vela was born in Ligornetto, Ticino, on 3 May 1820 to Giuseppe Vela, a small-holder, and his wife Teresa, née Casanova. The youngest of six children, at the age of nine he was apprenticed as a stonecutter in the Besazio and Viggiù quarries. His elder brother Lorenzo Vela (1812–1897), who was already a much respected sculptor and decorator in Milan, recognized his brother’s talent and invited him to the Lombard capital. There Vincenzo worked as a stonecutter on the Cathedral site, studied at the Brera Academy (1835–44), the Schools of Decoration (1835–39) and of Life Drawing (from 1839) in particular, and took private lessons from Benedetto Cacciatori (1794–1871), also assisting him in his studio. Influenced by the Romantic painting of Francesco Hayez (1791–1882) and by the naturalistic sculpture of the Tuscan Lorenzo Bartolini  (1777–1850), Vela developed a distinctly realistic style, in contrast to the Neoclassicism favoured by the followers of Antonio Canova (1757–1822), which was on the wane. In 1842, after winning a gold medal for his relief The Raising of Jairus Daughter in a competition organized by the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, he finished his studies and set up on his own in Milan.

1844–1853: Milan, early recognition

Following his first commission, the Monument to Bishop Luvini (1844–45, Lugano City Hall), which won him major recognition at the Brera exhibition (1844), Vela executed funeral monuments to Maddalena Adami-Bozzi in the cemetery at Pavia (1845) and Cecilia Rusca at the Locarno cemetery (1845–46). Both sculptural groups mark a profound formal innovation in the funerary art genre: the mourning figures, usually depicted as allegorical characters or accompanied by current religious symbols, were portrayed by the young sculptor with the features of the deceased’s family, and dressed in everyday clothes. This gave the groups a touching immediacy.

Vela also addressed secular themes and subjects, as exemplified by The Morning Prayer (1846), a genre sculpture executed for Duke Giulio Litta (1822–1891). There were divided opinions about the work, due mainly to the suspicion that the sculptor had relied heavily on plaster casts from life, thus violating academic canons, but it was also unconditionally admired by the critics, who appreciated its innovative language. In this work, characterized by finely rendered features and soft modelling, Vela combines contemporary content with tried-and-tested compositional models borrowed from early painting traditions.

In 1847 Vela spent a period of study in Rome. But he did not stay long in the Eternal City: after a few weeks the sculptor returned to Switzerland to take part in the Sonderbund War, joining the confederate troops under the command of General Guillaume-Henri Dufour (portrayed by Vela in 1849), committed to defending republican values. In March 1848, he participated as a volunteer in the First War of Independence fought by the Lombards who had risen up against Austria. A staunch republican, he earned the friendship and respect of the Milanese as well as the reputation of being a politically engaged artist and patriot.

For Duke Antonio Litta (1819–1866), Vela executed a colossal marble sculpture portraying the heroic slave Spartacus (1849/50) breaking his chains to die a free man. This classically inspired subject is characterized by antiacademic, extremely realistic rendering and vigorous modelling. The work, which marked Vela’s definitive break with the formal canons of Classicism, caused an outcry but also aroused interest at the annual Brera exhibition and the Great Exhibition in London (1851). Champion of a language aimed at representing the ’real’, Vincenzo Vela became the leader of Realist sculptors and, at the same time, spokesman for the ideals of the Italian Risorgimento in sculpture, just as Giuseppe Verdi was in music.

1853–1867: Turin, Italy’s hope and international triumphs

In 1852 Vela refused the Austrian government’s offer of a chair at the Brera Academy in Milan, which would have enabled them to control the activities of the sculptor, who was well-liked by the liberal opposition. A few months later he emigrated to Turin, capital of the Kingdom of Savoy.

Among the many works executed by Vela in the early 1850s were genre pieces like the Portrait of the Young Countess Leopoldina d’Adda with her Dog (1852–54) and various funerary monuments (Hope, 1852–54, Prever tomb, Turin; Desolation, 1852–55, Loschi tomb, Vicenza; Doleful Harmony, 1852–55, Gaetano Donizetti cenotaph, Bergamo; Maria Isimbardi d’Adda on Her Deathbed, 1851–52, Our Lady of Sorrows, 1851–53, d'Adda chapel, Villa Borromeo in Arcore). During this period, he also took part in national and international exhibitions (London, 1851; Paris, 1855).

In 1856 the sculptor was appointed to the prestigious post of professor at the Accademia Albertina in Turin, which he held for a decade. During the 14 years he spent in Turin, Vela had the chance to spread his stylistic innovations in a milieu that was still relatively minor, and achieved popularity. From the nerve centre of the Italian Risorgimento, he had a profound and lasting influence on monumental sculpture throughout Italy. In a short space of time, verism also came to be seen as the quintessence of Italian style abroad.

In Turin, Vincenzo Vela contributed to the renewal of the public monument genre, understood as a means of political communication with broad swathes of the population. The cult of monuments (’statuomanie’ in French), which had begun in France, had spread to the whole of Europe in the name of the democratization of the subjects portrayed. In fact, in squares and public spaces statues honouring the new ’heroes’, models of modern society, were erected alongside those of rulers and saints. They represented politicians and philosophers, scientists and benefactors, physicians and industrialists, artists and poets (Cesare Balbo, 1856; , 1857;, 1858; Antonio Rosmini, 1858; Stefano Franscini, 1860). The  (1857–59), a monument commemorating the troops of the Sardinian Army, erected in front of Palazzo Madama (formerly Palazzo del Senato) in Piazza Castello, assumed the significance of a ’manifesto’.

Thus Vincenzo Vela helped to create the new iconography of a liberal, middle-class national state, which was still a vague, abstract notion for many.

Vela’s extensive activity in the field of public monuments was accompanied by his regular and astute participation in Salon exhibitions. The eloquent group  (1862, Compiègne), donated by a group of patriotic Milanese noblewomen to Empress Eugénie, was exhibited at the Paris Salon (1863) and earned him the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. He was also asked by King Maximilian of Mexico to execute a  (1867, Colón, Panama). The Last Days of Napoleon (1866, Versailles2), a reflection on the rise and fall of the powerful, was presented with great acclaim at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1867). The sculpture earned the artist a first-class gold medal and the title of Officier de la Légion d’honneur; the marble was bought by Napoleon III.

An expert planner, organizer and businessman, Vela coped with his many complex commissions by running contemporaneously three studios with numerous assistants and specialized pupils.

Although he had been accorded glory and honours, the political climate in his adopted country has changed. After the Unification of Italy, his being a Swiss citizen and a ’foreigner’ prevented him from obtaining celebratory and public commissions, which went to Italian colleagues instead. In 1867, at the age of 47, he withdrew to his native village Ligornetto, following a murky conspiracy during the competition for the execution of the Monument to Cavour in Turin. In Ligornetto he had built an elegant summer residence, conceived with the triple function of private home, studio and personal museum in mind.

1867–1891: Ligornetto, late work and legacy

Even after he returned to Ligornetto for good, Vincenzo Vela was universally esteemed as the founder of Italian verism. The Ticino sculptor, known as the ’Cavour of art’3 and ‘Ligornetto Phidias’4, continued to work apace, executing private commissions for portraits and funerary monuments (Marie-Louise Joséphine Dufresne, 1868, Tour-en-Faucigny; Countess Maria Beatrice Giulini della Porta, 1874, Velate; Duke Ludovico Melzi d’Eril, 1890, Bellagio), and occasional scaled-down reproductions of his most famous works.

Highly rated as a sculptor in his own country, Vela was commissioned in 1873 by the City of Geneva to erect a mausoleum for Charles II Duke of Brunswick, who died there. But once again Vela, together with his architect friend Antonio Croci (1823–1884), fell victim to dubious behaviour. This time on the part of the duke’s executors, who had commissioned the project and, failing to understand his innovative poetics, were more interested in replicating past styles. The sculptor maintained that his creative freedom had been stifled and rescinded the contract.

Vela’s civil commitment led him to play an active part in political life: he was a radical representative in the Grand Council of Ticino (1877–81) and advisory member of the canton’s Education Committee (from 1881). At the beginning of the 1880s, the sculptor realized a long-nurtured desire to erect a monument dedicated to the humblest social class: the workers and labourers who were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the common good. The monumental high-relief Victims of Labour, a masterpiece of his late period, is a tribute to the unknown miners who died during the construction of the St Gotthard railway tunnel (1882). Presented to the public at the first Swiss National Exposition in Zurich (1883), the work aroused considerable interest. The sculpture’s social realism – which found its equivalent in the paintings of Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) – makes it a secular version of the ‘Deposition’. The posthumous versions in bronze are to be found in Rome (Galleria d’Arte Moderna, 1895; Palazzo dell’Inail, 2008) and in Airolo (station, 1932). The sculptor executed his last public work, the  (1888–89) for the City of Como. It gave him the opportunity to develop, on a colossal scale, a type of modelling appropriate for a work conceived in bronze (a technique he had already applied to the Funerary Monument to Maria Demartini Scala (1879–82), Grancia, and to the , 1887, Milan). Almost four metres tall, the full-length figure of the general is characterized by a vibrant surface and pictorial effects reminiscent of the innovations introduced by Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) and the Italian impressionists: the Scapigliati and Macchiaioli.

Vincenzo Vela died on 3 October 1891 at Ligornetto. Four years later his son Spartaco Vela (1854–1895) died prematurely, bequeathing the house-museum and all the works contained therein to the Swiss Confederation. In 1898 the Museo Vela (Museo Vincenzo Vela since 2014) opened its doors. The plaster originals, terracotta sketches, drawings, designs and photographs in the collection give a true idea of the sculptor’s artistic, political and procedural approach, as well as offering a varied panorama of a historical period in which the foundations were laid for the birth of liberal democracies in the West.

Notes

1 In «Notizie ticinesi. Vincenzo Vela», in ''L’Elvezia. Giornale Settimanale per gli Svizzeri in California'', year I, nr. 21, 15.11.1879, p. 1.

2 Château de Versailles, http://collections.chateauversailles.fr/#b31f0411-0d2a-4d19-86c7-05c5de0a6a9a

3 Carlo Pisani, Lettura sul bozzetto Vela pel monumento Manin, Venezia, Tipografia del Rinnovamento, 1870.

4 Dario Gamboni, «Phidias in Ligornetto. Das letzte Vierteljahrhundert von Vincenzo Vela», in: ''Swiss, made. Die Schweiz im Austausch mit der Welt'', edited by Beat Schläpfer, exhibition catalogue Museum Helmhaus and Museum Strauhof, Zürich, 1998, pp. 67-78; french version: «Phidias à Ligornetto. Le dernier quart de siècle de Vincenzo Vela», in ''Swiss, made. La Suisse en dialogue avec le monde'', exhibition catalogue Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Genève, 1998, pp. 49-60.

Bibliography

- Marc-Joachim Wasmer, Museo Vincenzo Vela a Ligornetto, Bern: Guide storico-artistiche della Svizzera SSAS, 2020.

- Gianna A. Mina Zeni (ed.), ''Museo Vela, le collezioni. Scultura, pittura, grafica, fotografia'', Lugano: Corner Banca, 2002.

- Nancy J. Scott, Vincenzo Vela 1820–1891, dissertation, New York University, New York, London: Garland Publishing, 1979.

- Giorgio Zanchetti, Vincenzo Vela scultore 1820-1891, dissertation on Criticism, Theory and History of Literature and the Arts, IX cycle, course coordinator Giuseppe Farinelli, supervisor Luciano Caramel, Milan: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, 1998.

External links

- Vincenzo Vela in the world (location of works, section devoted to images and correspondence), www.vincenzo-vela.ch (website under construction)

- Museo Vincenzo Vela, Ligornetto (Switzerland), www.museo-vela.ch

- Vincenzo Vela in Dizionario sull’arte in Svizzera (SIKART), http://www.sikart.ch/Kuenstlerinnen.aspx?id=4023476&lng=it

- Vincenzo Vela in Dizionario storico della Svizzera (DSS), https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/021969/2015-01-05/

VV 1820-1891 (talk) 08:02, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Please get a consensus before. Victor Schmidt (talk) 16:29, 6 May 2020 (UTC)