Beauty and allegory

0415-4 sala XXII_R

The room that looks towards the village of Ligornetto through large archways in the villa's noble façade, is the setting for the plaster models of the sculptor's monuments. These are for the most part, though not exclusively, funerary, and are dominated by a female figure of allegorical significance. Here Vincenzo Vela conforms to a centuries-old tradition embraced equally by sculpture and painting, though he interprets it through the unmistakable traits of his own plastic language. This often makes use of pictorial effects, above all in the depiction of hair, but always sustains what he is trying to achieve formally, and is combined with an appealing expression of affections and ideals.

Vincenzo Vela
Italy grateful to France
1861-62, plaster
Vincenzo Vela, Italy grateful to France, 1861-62, plaster

The group was executed on a private commission from a group of patriotic milanese ladies in Milan who wished to present it to Empress Eugénie of France, the consort of Napoleon III. During the Second Empire, France was very supportive of Italy's efforts to win independence from the Austrian empire, a fact to which the suggestive and ambiguous depiction of the relationship between the two States alludes. Furthermore, the partial nudity of "Italy" provoked a heated debate about the peninsula's desired but unachieved emancipation from foreign powers.
Marble, 1862, Compiègne, Compiègne Castle

Vincenzo Vela
Doleful Harmony. Monument to Gaetano Donizetti
1855, plaster
Vincenzo Vela, Doleful Harmony. Monument to Gaetano Donizetti, 1855, plaster

The upper and middle sections of the cenotaph dedicated to Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), which was commissioned from Vela by the composer's family. Vela produced an allegorical figure of a slender young woman crowned with stars as she bends melancholically over a harp. She weeps for the passing of the composer who is portrayed in a medallion over the wings of time and surrounded by musical scores.
A bozzetto exists of the monument.
Marble, 1855, Bergamo, Santa Maria Maggiore

Vincenzo Vela
The seven notes
1855, plaster
Vincenzo Vela, The seven notes, 1855, plaster

It was a curious choice to include on Donizetti's monument this lively representation of putti that personify the seven musical notes, whom Vela immortalised crying, angry or upset at being left orphans by the passing of the well-loved composer. The sculptor here presents the renaissance iconography of music-playing putti with surprisingly successful results, giving them a genuine vitality of expression.
Marble, 1855, Bergamo, Santa Maria Maggiore

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