Achille Salata (1850 - 1901), Girl With Kitten

Achille Salata (Ostiglia, Mantova, 1850 - Milan, after 1901)

Girl with kitten

Bronze, cm 46x15x19

signed, titled and written "Milano"

Publications: Adalberto Sartori and Arianna Sartori, "Artists in Mantua in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Biographical dictionary", volume VI, Mantua, Sartori Editore Archive, p. 2752.

Achille Salata was born in Ostiglia, in the province of Mantua, on 28 June 1850, by Carlo and Maria Martini, from a family of humble origins and conditions. At a young age, he moved to Milan, where he attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts: from the resolution of the Council of Ostiglia, dated 6 October 1868, we learn that he is granted a grant to continue his studies in architecture and sculpture in Milan, thanks to the funds of the Greggiati inheritance. In 1877, from 27 August to 26 September, at the Exhibition of Fine Arts in the Palazzo di Brera in Milan, Salata exhibits the first works of which we are aware through sources; it is five plasters firmly anchored to the sculptural tradition of Romantic Milan by Grandi, Bartolini, Marchesi, Rossi and Fusaro: The genius of Napoleon the great, monumental sculpture with pronounced realism, Shakespeare youth, subject with a marked romantic gradient that will frequently return within the entire corpus of the sculptor, Il Ritratto del defunto Gian Luigi Vantaggi di Genova, realized on commission from the family, La dignitosa, a work channelled into the nineteenth century vein of allegorical and evocative representation of female figures, and Il Ritratto a medaglione del defunto prof. Achille Marzorati, particularly appreciated by critics and members of the Academy. From the end of the 1870s, the artist regularly presents his sculptures at the Fine Arts Exhibition in the Palazzo di Brera: in 1878 he participates with the bronzes Guerra tra amici and La pesca galante, while in 1879 he proposed to the commission The portrait of the mother. Reaching, with these his youthful works, a fame that goes far beyond the borders of Milan, while being present with constancy at exhibitions braidensi, the artist presents his own works, especially bronze in national and international exhibitions, particularly in Rome (1884), Livorno (1886), Turin (1880,1884), Venice (1887) and London (1888). In 1891 Salata is present at the I Triennial Exhibition of Fine Arts in Milan figure with Il bacio di Santuzza, bronze bust inspired by Mascagni’s melodrama "La cavalleria rusticana": this exhibition, of essential importance for the evolution of the arts in northern Italy - is the event that sees the birth of the divisionist movement of Previati and Segantini - sees Salata occupy a prominent role, so much so that he was acclaimed by public and critics. From the second half of the last decade of the nineteenth century commissions to the artist are thinner. The last reference to his figure dates back to 1901: in the Archives of the Municipality of Ostiglia, there is a letter from 1901, addressed to the Mayor, probably written by a friend, in which it is asked that the Salata be helped to find him in poor health and financial condition. We have no definite information on the date of his death. Among the musealized works of the Salata, we certainly remember the Guardaportone, bronze currently part of the collections of the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan.This beautiful bronze sculpture, executed in Milan in 1884 and signed by the artist, presents a girl elegantly dressed and elaborately styled who plays with a kitten resting on his shoulder: the scene depicted is very realistic, Ironic and playful: the girl jokingly gives air to the kitten with a bellows, leading him to retreat. The work shows marked references to the sculpted sculpture of nineteenth-century Milan: the vorticoso movement of the dress and of the flexible figure recall the masterpieces of the greatest exponents of this central movement.