Nymph By Ferdinando Vichi Carrara Marble And Alabaster Italy

Antique Nymph in Carrara marble, by Ferdinando Vichi (1875-1941), seated on an Antique bench in alabaster, signed on the back on the terrace and located in Firenze (Florence). High quality of carving especially in the features of the face, the hands, the feet shod with gladiator sandals. We notice on the seat and the back of the bench decorated with eagle and lion claws, a chiseled vegetable frieze. Height 30 cm, length 30.5 cm, depth 16 cm. Born into a noble family, Ferdinando Vichi was born in Florence in 1875 and died there in 1941. He was one of the talented Tuscan sculptors associated with the Bazzanti Gallery in Florence. Known and much appreciated, he produced many works of art, his work on marble and alabaster testifies to his great technical capacity. At the beginning of the 19th century, his grandfather founded the Vichi Galleries, which soon became famous, especially abroad, and which Ferdinando himself would run as an adult. Passionate about art since childhood, he then entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence under the direction of Rivalta and Zocchi, where he won numerous prizes. Very young, he exhibited one of his works, La bagnante, at the Paris Salon, which was awarded and immediately sold. Later he worked for Germany, France, England, both Americas and India. International critics speak of the young Vichi - not yet twenty - "with extremely flattering judgments". Ferdinando Vichi was a central figure in the production of Florentine sculpture at the end of the 19th century. He is associated with sculptors Cesare Lapini, Pietro Bazzanti and Guglielmo Pugi, all of whom have executed works at the Galleria Bazzanti. The gallery, originally Bazzanti's studio, was inaugurated in 1822 and is still open today. His compositions are varied in subjects, ranging from busts after the Antique to orientalist themes and Renaissance-inspired models. Like many other sculptors of the late 19th century, Vichi often drew inspiration from Classical Antiquity. The historicization of romantic subjects was very popular in Italian sculpture at the end of the 19th century. He won the grand prize and the gold medal in various Italian exhibitions (including those in Venice and Livorno). In 1907, at the age of thirty, he received the title of Knight of the Kingdom. one notices in his sculpture a passionate skill and a harmonizing force which dominate the forms, as well in the busts as in the tiny sketches of clay. When the subject is unique (a bust, a full silhouette) we find harmony in the pose itself; otherwise, when the central human figure is next to something else (an animal, a simple table ...) Ferdinando always finds a balance, an essential reciprocity between the elements represented which, once united, become a new unity, aesthetically inseparable. Linked to the figurative art of the Macchiaioli, sculptor Vichi hardly ever tends to represent symbolic or exemplary occasions, but rather wants to capture intimate and everyday moments, often trying to stop the movement of his figures in a thoughtful pose. or reflective.