The Exquisite Work of Giosuè Bernardino Meli

New this week, we have a beautiful rare pair of drawings by the 19th-century Italian sculptor Giosuè Bernardino Meli (1816–1893). Meli usually worked in three dimensions, carving exquisite figures in Carrara marble. In 1840 he moved from his native Luzzano in northern Italy to Rome, thanks to the patronage of some prominent figures of Bergamo society. In Rome he perfected his sculpture studies in the studio of Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1809–1873). Meli was influenced by the Neoclassical style of Benzoni and other contemporary sculptors working in Rome, such as Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) and Pietro Tenerani (1789–1869), but he also sought an expressive language between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. After a long period of underappreciation, there has been renewed interest in Meli after a recent biography by Carlo Pinessi of the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Luzzana.

Stock numbers KB-746 and KB-747

Images:

3) Il Gigante (The Giant), 1840, Luzzana, Bergamo

4) Statue of St Frances of Rome and the Angel, 1866, Santa Francesca Romana

5) Four Putti © Grogan & Company

6) Saint John Sleeping © Antiques Par Force

7) Christ on the Column, Scala Sancta, Rome