Giuseppe Guastalla Renaissance Portrait

terracotta sculpture, 68 x 32 x 26 cm
signed on the reverse side "G. Guastalla 1886".

Giuseppe Guastalla (Florence, 1867 - Rome, 1952), who moved with his family to Rome after the Breach of Porta Pia, showed a marked inclination towards drawing and sculpture from an early age. He began an apprenticeship in the studio of Ettore Ferrari (1845-1929), learning from him that dry and decisive monumentalism, a vehicle for ideological and political content.
Towards the 1990s, subjects of a celebratory nature, often linked to the commission to create public monuments, were joined by episodes taken from everyday and popular reality, as well as genre sculptures, characterised by a profound expressive modernity.

This Renaissance portrait is part of the sculptor's very first production, if we consider that his debut took place at the 1883 Exhibition of Amateurs and Connoisseurs of Fine Arts in Rome.