Ennio Tomai - Swallows

bronze, cm 17 x 36 x 14 

Provenance: Rome, artist's heirs
Bibliography: Ennio Tomai, exhibition catalogue curated by P. Del Cimmuto (Rivisondoli, Pinacoteca Civica, 7 August - 15 September 2017), Ascoli Piceno, Artificio Edizioni, 2017, ripr. analogous specimen; Renato Brozzi e la scultura animalista italiana tra Otto e Novecento, exhibition catalogue edited by A. Panzetta and A. Mavilla (Traversetolo, Museo Brozzi, 11 February - 30 September 2021), Florence, Edifir, 2020, p. 168 n. 65, p. 204, ripr. analogous specimen; Déco in Italia. L'eleganza della modernità, exhibition catalogue edited by F. Parisi, (Forte di Bard. Bard, 2 December 2022 - 10 April 2023), Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo, 2022, no. 97.

Ennio Tomai's sculpture is characterized above all by his choice of animal subjects, particularly those born out of his passion for ornithology. Numerous and varied species of birds, treated with anatomical meticulousness and preciosity of line, appeared in exhibitions in the 1920s and 1930s, to the delight of critics and the public alike.