Italo Griselli (Montescudaio, 1880 – Florence, 1958), Cockfight

Italo Griselli (Montescudaio, 1880 – Florence, 1958)

Cockfight

Bronze with dark patina, 40 x 38,5 x 25 cm

On a marble base

Italo Griselli (Montescudaio, 1880 – Florence, 1958) represents one of the most solid and technically skilled figures of twentieth-century Italian sculpture, an artist capable of creating a dialogue between the composure of classical tradition and the monumental anxieties of his time. Born in Montescudaio (Val di Cecina, province of Pisa) in 1880, he trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence under the guidance of Augusto Rivalta, but it was his long stay in Russia, which lasted over a decade until the outbreak of the October Revolution, that refined his plastic sensitivity and gave him international fame as an exceptional portraitist for the Russian aristocracy and the imperial family. Upon his return to Italy, Griselli vigorously entered the climate of the "Return to Order", developing his art in a monumental direction that found ample space in the major public commissions of the fascist regime, while always maintaining a stylistic independence made up of synthetic volumes and a certain archaic solemnity. Among his most famous public works, the colossal Genius of Sport (originally conceived as the Genius of Fascism), located in front of the Palazzo degli Uffici in the EUR district of Rome, undoubtedly stands out: an athletic figure who, in his gesture of greeting, perfectly embodies the ideal of strength and balance that Griselli pursued throughout his adult life. In the broad panorama of monumental Italian sculpture, Italo Griselli has left a significant mark, helping to celebrate some of the nation's most important figures and symbols. Inside the Vittoriano complex in Rome, the colossal monument dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II, Griselli put his technical mastery to the test by creating the statue that personifies the city of Florence, placed in the imposing series of sculptures dedicated to the noble cities of Italy that decorate the base of the portico. The unbreakable bond with Tuscany and its artistic tradition finds a perfect synthesis in the figure of the Arno, created for the base of the Ponte della Vittoria in Florence. In this work, Griselli interprets the river as a mighty river deity, a personification that recalls classical statuary but is translated with a modern sensibility, where the force of the water is evoked by the vigorous musculature and synthetic modeling of the stone, perfectly integrating the sculptural element into the architectural and landscape fabric of the city. Moving to the Ligurian Riviera, the artist paid homage to the first Queen of Italy with the Monument to Queen Margherita in Bordighera, inaugurated in 1939 in a suggestive location along the Via Romana, overlooking the sea. Although Griselli's fame is inextricably linked to monumental statuary and the celebration of human heroism, his animalier production, embodied by this bronze Cockfight, represents one of the most authentic, free and technically refined veins of his entire career. This interest was not a simple stylistic exercise, but a profound research into the vitality of form that had its roots in his Florentine training, influenced by the lessons of masters such as Sirio Tofanari. For Griselli, the animal was not a mere decorative subject, but rather an organism through which to explore muscular tension, the rhythm of movement, and a plastic synthesis that often anticipated almost abstract solutions: his animals are often captured in moments of alert stillness or imminent leap, transforming matter into pure energy and demonstrating a profound knowledge of anatomy and volume.

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