Valerio Villareale

Valerio Villareale (* 1773 in Palermo ; † September 14, 1854 there ) was an Italian sculptor . He was one of the most important representatives of classicism .

Life

Villareale came from a Spanish family. As a child he was already involved in making sculptures , statues and wooden cribs , which attracted the attention of the French architect Léon Dufourny, who designed the high school of the Botanical Garden in Palermo .

He was a student and friend of the Palermitan painter Giuseppe Velasco and teacher Domenico Costantinos . With the help of Vice Chancellor Francesco d'Aquino Principe di Caramanico he was able to work for 3 years in Naples at the court of King Ferdinand IV , where he came into contact with the artists at the court and got to know important works by Antonio Canova . It was here that he made his first important works. Among them a representation of the Bourbon Don Leopold, which was sent to Rome. The sculptor increasingly turned to realistic representation .

He then went to Rome from 1797 to 1802 , where he joined the circle of artists around Antonio Canova . This period had a major impact on his further sculptural style. He married in 1802 and was soon called back to Naples to the court of Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat . In 1812 he went to Caserta , where he made various statues in the park and bas-reliefs on the palace. After gaining a certain prominence as a sculptor, and Joachim Murat was executed, he finally returned to Palermo in 1815, where he was appointed director of fine arts and professor of sculpture at the Royal University of Palermo .

Valerio Villareale took part for a long time in the archaeological excavations of Selinunte , where he worked with Saverio Cavallari on the reconstruction of the Temple of Castor and Pollux restored the only surviving column of Temple G. During his time in Naples he had studied the ruins of Herculaneum intensively .

Valerio Villareale died of cholera on September 14, 1854 and was buried in the church of San Domenico in Palermo.

plant

His works include many busts and grave sculptures in various Sicilian churches, several of which refer to the Sicilian poet Giovanni Meli (1740 to 1815). In 1830 he created the bas-reliefs about the life of Saint Rosalia in the chapel of the saints in the Palermitan cathedral, other well-known works by him are:

• A bas-relief of Homeric persons at the Palace of Caserta
• A bas-relief of Sicily, Ira, Ceres and Minerva on the City Hall of Palermo
• “The dancing Bacchante ” and “ Arianna ”, which can be seen today in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Palermo
• Monument of Giuseppina Turrisi Colonna in the Church of San Domenico, by Stefania Branciforti in the Church of S. Francesco di Paola
• A bust of the painter Pietro Novelli (1603–1647), memorial stone to Nina Siciliana , poet of the 13th century, and the grave of Blessed Giuliano Majali in the church of San Domenico in Palermo
• A representation of Giovanni Melis at the Trabia Palace in Palermo

literature

• Marcella La Monica: Valerio Villareale. Pitti, Palermo 2012, ISBN 978-88-96569-16-0 .

Web links

• Valerio Villareale in the Palermo Biographical Archive