Giannino Castiglioni - Doves

bronze, cm 26 x 43 x 43
Signed on the base: 'G. Castiglioni'; inscribed around the base: "Iddio vi pasce e davvi li fiumi e le fonti per il vostro bere" (God feeds you and gives you rivers and springs for your drinking)
Provenance: Milan, private collection
Notes: The sculpture is the model for the group of doves in the Fountain of St. Francis in Piazza Sant'Angelo in Milan, with the Franciscan episode of the Preaching to the Birds, made by Castiglioni in 1926.

Born in Milan in 1884, Castiglioni distinguished himself for his skill as a chiseller in the production of medals, but also for his bas-reliefs and monumental sculptures of a celebratory nature.
In 1926, the sculptor won the competition for the statue to be dedicated to St Francis in Piazza Sant'Angelo in Milan. The octagonal stone fountain depicts the episode of the Preaching to the Birds and the bronze sculpture presented here is the model for the doves in the fountain: a work with an elegantly synthetic patina, it does not however lose its naturalistic orientation, legible in the different poses of the birds, which is combined with the refined characters of the inscription around the base: "Iddio vi pasce e davvi li fiumi e le fonti per vostro bere" taken from the Fioretti di San Francesco, written by Ugolino da Brunforte at the end of the 14th century.