Vincenzo Ragusa
Vincenzo Ragusa (born July 8, 1841 in Palermo ; † March 13, 1927 there ) was an Italian sculptor, known for the art exchange with Japan, when he lived there from 1876 to 1882 during the Meiji period .
Ragusa came from a humble family in Palermo and learned ivory carving. He took part in the second Italian War of Independence ( procession of a thousand under Nino Bixio and battle of Volturno in 1860). He then continued his work as a sculptor and won the highest price at the exhibition of the Academy of Arts in Brera in 1872. Due to a competition he was chosen to travel to Tokyo in 1878 in order to set up an art school (Kobu Bijutsu Gakko) there at the request of the Japanese government to teach art in the western style ( Yōga ). The painter Antonio Fontanesi and the architect Giovanni Cappelletti were also there. Ragusa taught there until the school closed in 1882. Then he was back in Palermo, taking the Japanese lacquer artist Kiyohara Einosuke and his wife, an experienced embroiderer in the Japanese style, and their daughter Kiyohara Tama (1861-1939) with him. They taught at the Scuola Superiore d'Arte Applicata founded by Ragusa in Palermo (today Istituto d'Arte di Palermo), but returned to Japan in 1888.
Their daughter stayed and married Ragusa in 1889. Kiyohara Tama was a painter herself and taught the women's class at Ragusa's art school.
She took the name Eleonora Ragusa and did not return to Japan until 1933, when she had been a widow for six years. A Japanese newspaper reported on her fate, which brought her to know Japan. She gave many of his works to the Imperial Art School and they are now in the Museum of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music . The imperial family in Japan also owns some of his works of art, including a statue of Napoleon I.
gallery
Japanese woman, Tokyo
Japanese actor, Tokyo, National University of Fine Arts
Kiyohara Tama 1883
literature
- Sadao Tsuneko among others: Discovering the Arts of Japan. A Historical Overview . Oxford University Press, 2003
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ragusa, Vincenzo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 8, 1841 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Palermo |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 13, 1927 |
| Place of death | Palermo |