Alfonso Canciani
Alfonso Canciani (born December 11, 1863 in Brazzano di Cormòns , Austrian Empire , † October 3, 1955 Trieste ) was a sculptor and medalist of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . As a result of the First World War , he couldn't find any jobs as an “Italian” and in 1918 went back to Brazzano bitterly. In 1919 he received a professorship in Trieste and wrote his memoirs. Canciani died in Trieste in 1955.
Life
Canciani, son of the stonemason Lodovico C., was already working in the quarries of Sanguarzo and Aurisina at the age of 13 and loved modeling in his spare time. At the age of 20 he decided to go to Vienna because he saw better opportunities there. After working there in three stonemasonry companies, in the spring of 1884 he met the owner of a marble workshop, who asked Canciani to work for him and who was helpful to the budding artist. So he only let Canciani work in the mornings so that he could study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna . After passing the entrance exam, Canciani entered the general sculpture class as an intern in the fall of 1886.
The student's artistic abilities soon became apparent at the academy. His first composition exercise, “The Robbery of Helena ”, won first prize.
With a lot of diligence and diligence, Canciani passed the compulsory exams and made progress in modeling. In view of the excellent results, the professor recommended that he go to the special class of higher sculpture.
In 1890, on May 1st, Alfonso Canciani modeled a tired worker at the end of the day and at the end of his life. For this he received the modeling class award. Later he often depicted workers, a subject that other artists of the time avoided, with the exception of the Belgian Constantin Meunier , whom Canciani adored.
In October 1890 Canciani enrolled in the higher sculpture class of Professor Carl Kundmann , where he continued his education for five years.
Canciani had to work a lot outside of the city to cover the cost of studying. For the sixth and final year he studied with Kaspar von Zumbusch . That year he wanted to apply for the Rome Prize, which, among other honors, consisted of 3,000 silver flowers and a scholarship for a three-year study trip to Italy . When a colleague called for help, Canciani drove to Budapest , where he helped build a monument for Empress Maria Theresa in Pressburg (now Bratislava ) and with another project. The three months required for this put him in great time constraint in his work for the Rome Prize. The competitors were almost finished and Canciani only had 6 weeks to do it. Despite major administrative difficulties, it was finished on time and actually received the Rome Prize in 1896.
The body set up by Canciani group of Dante , standing on a cliff above the writhing among the damned, was on the 3rd Biennale in Venice issued in 1899 and was applauded. Emperor Franz Joseph made the execution possible on a large scale with an honorary award from his private box; however, there were no donors to produce the model as a monument in marble.
With his wife Jutta, Alfonso Canciani had a daughter Nerina, who, also artistically gifted, became a painter under her married name Nerina Canciani de Gauss.
Canciani became a full member of the Secession in 1903 , which the Dante group had shown at their main exhibition in Vienna in 1900. There Canciani was awarded the “Artist Prize”, the highest Austrian state prize for an artist. The model was exhibited in Berlin in 1910 and was widely admired. Among the innovators of the secession, however, there were also voices that described Canciani's powerful realism as out of date. However, he did not allow himself to be dissuaded from his direction, including the glorification of work. Canciani was a popular portraitist and was valued and promoted by personalities such as Gustav Klimt , Peter Altenberg and Adolf Loos . The influential critic Adolph Donath and the painter and sculptor Josef Engelhart , a co-founder of the Secession , were lifelong friends of his. On the occasion of the Dante group's exhibition in Berlin, Stefan Zweig wrote an enthusiastic review about it.
Canciani took part in a competition for a monument to Empress Elisabeth in Vienna . In his memoirs he writes that his design was earmarked for the first of the six prizes. As he learned from an allegedly reliable source, a member of the jury refused to award first prize to an “Italian” because the Empress had been murdered by an Italian. This although Friuli belonged to the coastal province of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy until the end of the First World War ! So only the 2nd to 6th prize were awarded. From then on, Canciani lost interest in competitions.
In 1908, the design for the Empress Elisabeth monument prompted the Lower Austrian community of Gföhl to build an orphanage and have the design for the Empress monument made in marble. Today the sculpture is in a small chapel in Gföhl, which leads many viewers to believe that the statue is a representation of St. Elisabeth .
Canciani writes in his memoir: “... I made a pretty good name for myself in Vienna . I also had enough work to make a living from. But when my star began to rise on the horizon, the world war broke out and blocked my hopes. After the war Brazzano came to Italy , and I also became an Italian citizen (which fulfilled an old dream of mine). ”Canciani gave up and went to Gorizia . In 1919 he received the chair for plastic at the Scuola Industriale in Trieste , where he died in 1955.
Works
Canciani's will to monumentality is evident in the models for large-scale projects (Dante group, monument to Tsar Alexander II (approx. 1910), monument to the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph , monument to Empress Elisabeth in Vienna). These projects were not implemented; other works, such as the monument to Empress Elisabeth in Pula (1904), were destroyed as a result of political developments (1934).
In Vienna, where Canciani lived for 35 years and created countless portrait busts and small sculptures, his name is almost forgotten today. Here he was a sought-after portraitist for the nobility during his lifetime, but also for academics and university professors whose busts were placed in the university , in front of the Technical University (Anton Schrötter, Ritter von Kristelli, 1903) and in the sacristy of the Minorite Church . Eight allegorical children created by Canciani in 1914 peer down from the facade of the Hotel Bristol opposite the Vienna State Opera. Portrait busts of the artist can also be found in Udine and Cormons . Small bronzes often represent motifs from the world of work. The industrialist Albert Böhler had such statuettes cast in large numbers as gifts for his customers.
Building sculptures can be found in Vienna on the Artaria House on Kohlmarkt (1901), on the Hotel Bristol and on the so-called “Fürstenhof” . Allegorical works (1911) that were on the Vienna Stock Exchange were lost in the 1956 fire in the building.
Canciani also worked as a medalist; Examples are a medal on Pope Benedict XV. , (1917), the commemorative medal of the Italian colony in Vienna (1919) and a medal for the Sparkasse Triest (1942). The rector's chain and rector's scepter of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna also come from Canciani (1910).
Gravestones and tombstones, such as those of the Apostolic Nuncio Alessandro Bavona (1912) in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna , formed another field for Canciani's artistic work.
Exhibitions
- Vienna, Künstlerhaus , 1891, 1892, 1895, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918.
- Vienna, Secession , 1900, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1909.
- Vienna, Arte Sacra, 1912
- Vienna, CA-BV Kassenhalle 1987
- Berlin, Great Art Exhibition, 1910
- Munich Glaspalast , 1901, 1907, 1908, 1910
- Graz, 1894.
- Rome, 1911, 1940.
- Venice Biennale , 1899, 1984.
- Trieste, 1890, 1922, 1925, 1926, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1838, 1942, 1954, 1979.
- Udine, 1903, 1913.
- Monfalcone, 1983.
- Pisino, 1904.
- Fiume, 1939.
- Cormons, 1957.
literature
- Hartwig Fischel: Canciani, Alfonso . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 5 : Brewer-Carlingen . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1911, p. 491 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Alfonso Canciani . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 16, Saur, Munich a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-598-22756-6 , p. 107.
- Austrian artist lexicon. HG R. Schmidt, Vienna 1974, pp. 295-296.
- Hans Kitzmüller: Alfonso Canciani a Vienna. Udine 1984.
- Hans Kitzmüller: Alfonso Canciani in Vienna. CA-BV Vienna, exhibition from May 11th to May 27th 1987.
- Adolph Donath: Alfonso Canciani. In: Appendix to the illustrated magazine Das Kunstgewerbe. 1923.
- Adolph Donath: Cancianis Dante. In: Eg at noon. 1910, vol. 34, no.106.
- Adolph Donath: The Dante monument by Alfonso Canciani. In: Illustrated Wiener Extrablatt . Evening edition, May 14, 1910.
- Adolph Donath: The sculptor Canciani. In: Berliner Tagesblatt. December 9, 1933.
- Stefan Zweig: Alfonso Canciani. In: The wide world. Berlin, Jg. 22 No. 47, 1903, pp. 1622-1623.
- Stefan Zweig: The Viennese sculptor Alfonso Canciani in his new creations. In: Velhagen and Klasing's monthly books. 4, pp. 474-475.
- Alfonso Canciani, unpublished autobiography, was owned by Nerina Canciani de Gauss.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Canciani, Alfonso |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Stonemason |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 11, 1863 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brazzano di Cormons |
| DATE OF DEATH | 3rd October 1955 |
| Place of death | Trieste |