Antonio Berti

Antonio Berti (born August 24, 1904 in San Piero a Sieve near Florence , † 1990 in Sesto Fiorentino ) was an Italian sculptor .

Life

Antonio Berti came from a family of farmers and pastors from the Mugello area in Val di Fiorana. Excited about the many works of art of the neighboring Florence , he joined at the age of 17 years near the town of a place in the porcelain factory of Richard Ginori in Doccia, where he manufactured products for the porcelain industry.

When the art critic Ugo Ojetti saw some works made in clay by Antonio Berti, he advised his father Angiolo to let his son study at the Istituto statale d'arte di Firenze art academy . Antonio Berti initially took up painting ; he was particularly interested in the works of Paul Cézanne . Later he was fascinated by the Florentine sculptors of the Renaissance such as Jacopo della Quercia , Donatello and Andrea del Verrocchio . Berti loved the polished surfaces, the formal purity, elegance and sophistication of these sculptors. From 1921 to 1929 he was a student in Libero Andreotti's sculpture class , with whom he remained friends until his death.

In 1932 he had his first exhibitions at the Biennale di Venezia and the Quadriennale di Roma . The recognition and praise of critics and artists such as Carlo Carrà , Mario Sironi and Aldo Carpi marked the beginning of his career as a sculptor, which was particularly supported by the Rodolfo Sivieros collection from the beginning until 1983 . Siviero, in 1971 and 1975 Presidency of the Florence Design Academy took over, was nicknamed "007 Art", because in the time of the occupation as a secret agent with his life the works of Jewish artists in the house of the art critic Giorgio Castelfranco (later " Casa Siviero ”) in Florence. In 1944 he was imprisoned and tortured. After the liberation he put in the building an art collection for Lost works and explored as minister plenipotentiary on behalf of the new government of Alcide De Gasperi 's whereabouts and the possibilities of recovery of stolen assets . The sculptor Giacomo Manzù , whom he portrayed on a medal in 1975 , also played an important role in Antonio Berti's life - he too was vehemently committed to the preservation of Italian cultural heritage .

From 1934 Berti mainly devoted himself to sculpture. His works are represented in museums and private collections such as the Vatican Museums and the Casa Rodolfo Siviero museum , one of the most important and representative collections of the 20th century. In 1935 Berti presented a marble bust of Antonio Locatelli and a figure of Princess Marina Ruspoli Volpi at the Italian Contemporary Art Exhibition in Paris ; he also showed his works in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome . Lively exhibition activity followed. Several works by Antonio Berti fell victim to the raids of the Nazi dictatorship and are now being returned in isolated cases.

Antonio Berti was a member of various national and international academies . From 1960 to 1974 he taught sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence , which annually announces an award for sculptors named after him in his memory, which is awarded within a sculptor symposium. He also taught at the Accademia di San Luca , the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando of Madrid , the “Academic Clementina of Bologna”, renamed the Accademia di belle arti di Bologna , the Accademia Etrusca in Cortona , the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo , the Florence Design Academy in Florence (1975–1976) and the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Literature in Rome.

Berti's students included Margaret Cassidy Manship, Fiore De Henriquez-Peralta, José Ramón Lázarro Bencomo (Delarra), Frank Varga, Stefano Patti, Susan Lupino and Josie Spencer. His most famous Italian students who went down in art history are the sculptors Sergio Benvenuti and Carlo Cacciatori.

Berti also made a name for himself as a designer of medals and coins . Among other things, he created the medal to commemorate the first year of the pontificate of Pope John XXIII. (1959). Among the last copies were those for the tenth anniversary of the pontificate of Paul VI. , l'angelo della Giustizia ( Justitia ) for the Ministry of the Interior , coins with the portraits of Benedetto Croces (1981), Winston Churchill (1981), Lucius D. Clay (1981), Alcide De Gasperi (1982) and Dwight D. Eisenhower ( 1981), the medals for the return of Italian troops from Germany and the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Florence. He also created the portraits of the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his secretary Friedrich Jantz on coins .

Berti loved Italian music and was friends with the conductor Arturo Toscanini , for whom he minted the honorary coins “Triptych of silver medals to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the death of Arturo Toscanini”, and Bruno Bartoletti . He also dedicated a medal to Maria Callas .

Antonio Berti was married to Fernanda Calamai.

His studio in Sesto Fiorentino (Via Bernini 57) has been preserved to this day. The building houses the “Associazione dell'Casa Berti”, which was founded in 2013 on the initiative of his children Cecilia and Giovanni Berti with the support of the city. According to the will of the master, the president of the “Fondazione Antonio Berti” is his pupil Domenico Viggiano. Viggiano studied with Antonio Berti from 1960 to 1964, was Professor of Engraving from 1967 to 2010 and Director and Vice President of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence from 1972 to 2002.

plant

Statue of Ugo Foscolo in Santa Croce

Statue of Julius Facibeni in front of the Santo Stefano church in Pane in Florence

1956 bust of the Italian military pilot, politician and journalist Antonio Locatelli, Viale Vittorio Emanuele, Bergamo

His oeuvre includes busts and statues of important personalities, including General Antonio Locatelli (1935), Ugo Foscolo in Santa Croce (1937), that of the Archbishop of Florence Elia Dalla Costa (1938) and the statues of several members of the Italian royal family, the Princess Marina Ruspoli (1935), Viktor Emanuel III. , Marie José of Belgium (1939) and Ida Visconti Venosta (1939). The statues of the American department store heiress Barbara Hutton (1938), Clarissa Villoresi (1938) and Susanna Agnelli (1938) as well as those of Popes Pius XII are particularly impressive . and John XXIII. Worth mentioning are the sculptures Musicalita by Comtessa Ricci Crisolini (1941) and the American Generals Hume and Clark (1945), the statue of Cardinal Francis Spellman , the busts of President Antonio Segni , Baccio Maria Bacci (1958) and the portraits of Benito Mussolini , Conte Volpi, Antonio Pecci, François Mitterrand , Salvatore Ferragamo and Pablo Picasso .

His early sculptures of children, such as the bronze sculpture of his daughter Cecilia (1934), the sculpture of Paola Ojetti, the daughter of his discoverer Ugo Ojetti (1935), and that of Anna Guicciardini Corsi Salviati ( Anna with the turtle ).

The allegorical sculptures such as Primavera (Spring) in Sesto Fiorentino (1936–1937), Il Risveglio (The Awakening, 1933), Musicalita (The Musicality, 1941), Il Cristo nel Giardino (Christ in the Garden) in the Vatican should also be mentioned Museums in Rome (1972), Terracotta Le Tre Grazie (The Three Graces) in the Casa Siviero (1977), the sculpture of Filosofia (Philosophy) and the relief on the base of the statue La Scienza e la Tecnica di Francesco Messina (Science and technology) at the University of Cagliari (1963–1964).

After the war he made a number of large monuments of famous people such as the monuments to Alcide De Gasperi in Trento (1957), Pius XII. on the Piazza San Lorenzo in Rome (1967) and Luise von Marillac in St. Peter's Basilica (1954). He also created the bronze bust of Inge Manzù (1978-79), the Regina Elena del Montenegro in Messina (1960), the bronze statue of Don Julius Facibeni (the donor of the Madonna del Grappa in Rifredi ) on the square in front of the Church of Santo Stefano in Pane in Florence (1978) and that of Guglielmo Marconi in the park of Villa Griffone in Sasso Marconi (1963). The 5 meter high statue of Santo Francesco (1975) on the roof of the “Ospedale di Padre Pio” hospital in the Casa della Sollievo Sofferenza in San Giovanni Rotondo ( Foggia province ) is impressive . The statue of Padre Pio is located in the former monastery complex opposite the church. Berti's last works were the bronze statues for the Cathedral of Castellammare di Stabia (1983) and the monument to Giuseppe Mazzini in Florence (1987).

Santa Maria Immacolata Church in Sesto Fiorentino

For the furnishing of the church u. a. the altar of the Annunciazione ( Annunciation ) in San Piero a Sieve (1947), the high altar in the Cathedral of Reggio Calabria (1965), the high altar depicting the Annunciation with figures at the "International College" of the Carmelites in Rome (1968) and the Fountain with the portrait of Anna Guicciardini Corsi Salviati in the Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati in Sesto Fiorentino (1935) and the fountain on the coast of Salerno .

literature

• Berti, Antonio . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 1 : A-D . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1953, p. 777 .

Web links

Commons : Antonio Berti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Book Antonio Berti: scultore. on WorldCat , accessed July 7, 2013.
• Article Una Associazione per recuperare la Casa dello scultore Berti (Photo Gallery). on piano note from June 17, 2013 (Elena Andreini) , accessed July 2, 2013.
• Catalog of the exhibition Antonio Berti… e gli artisti fiorentini continuavano a nascere. (June 10 - December 31, 2011). on Firenze, Museo Casa Siviero , accessed July 7, 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Papa Francesco a Firenze - Un'opera di Antonio Berti sull'altare della S. Messa allo stadio Franchi .
2. ^ Antonio Berti ( en ) In: Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli .
3. ↑ Antonio Berti ( memento of July 7, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on March 21, 2016.
4. ↑ XX anniversario della morte di Arturo Toscanini . In: edixxon.com .: " Honor coin"
5. ↑ Antonio Berti / Maestro Scultore di Antonio Frintino (autore) on museodeibozzetti.it
6. ^ Berti Antonio, Monumento a Ugo Foscolo
7. ↑ Lo studio dello scultore toscano Antonio Berti on youtube.com
8. ↑ Sesto Fiorentino, opera di Antonio Berti on flickr.com (sculpture)
9. ↑ Tuscany 1900–1940 on ilovefiguresculpture.com (sculptures)
10. ↑ St. Louise de Marillac by Antonio Berti, 1954.
11. ↑ Antonio Berti on delchiaro.com
12. ↑ Antonio Berti on prolocosigna.it (biography)