Animal sculpture “Panther with cubs” Giovanni De Martino (Naples 1870 – 1935/38)

terracotta and bronze sculpture (basement) signed De Martino.

Dimensions: cm L 60 H cm 23

De Martino, classical sculptor active in Naples, known for portraiture, was named "the sculptor of children" (street urchins, fishermen, commoners).

He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, was a pupil of Stanislao Lista, Gioacchino Toma, Achille d'Orsi, moved to Paris at a very young age, was selected many times at the Salon where he won the Louvre Prize for the sculpture entitled "The Locust Fisherman ”.

Having returned to Naples he always dedicates himself to sculpture, in addition to bronze he also uses terracotta with different combinations of materials, animalier subjects are not very present in his artistic production mostly known for Neapolitan subjects with realistic features, for this reason the work could be a unique piece linked to post-Parisian experimentation. From 1916 to 1931 he was Angelo Frattini's teacher.

EXHIBITIONS:

between 1900 and 1929, he exhibited in Naples from 1892, in Paris since 1900, in St. Petersburg in 1902, in Rome in 1903, in Venice in 1905 and in Rimini in 1909 and subsequently in 1922, in 1924 and 1928 in Munich of Bavaria. In 1916, the sculpture entitled Pensive Girl was purchased by the Regional Art Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples.

He took part in the Venice Biennale in 1907, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1930, 1929 and exhibited at the exhibitions of the Campania Fine Arts Union. He was then present at the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti in Naples in 1910 and at the Fiorentina Primaverile in Florence in 1922. His adolescent and childhood themes are rendered with such extraordinary effectiveness that Benito Mussolini himself was greatly fascinated by them on the occasion of the Rome Quadrennial of 1931 (January-June), in which he presented himself with his friends as "Italian artists from Paris" among including: Severini, De Pisis and Campigli.

MUSEUMS:

Louvre Paris, F.Calleri Museum Catania, Federico Zeri University Bologna Foundation, Varese Civic Museum, Max Chiasso Collection, Masnago Varese Civic Museum of Modern Contemporary Art, M. Buonarroti Birthplace Museum Arezzo, Accademia Gallery Naples.

Bibliography: very extensive linked above all to specific volumes on Neapolitan Sculpture between the 1955th and 1994th centuries, Dictionary of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Sculpture by A. Panzetta, E.Benezit Dictionary, Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Art and Artists of the Neapolitan School and by Posillipo D.Maggiore (1920), Dictionary of Italian sculptors from Neoclassicism to Liberty V.Vicario (1945), Art in Naples from 2000 to XNUMX the difficult years M.Picone Petrusa Electa (XNUMX)