Italian Bronze Sculpture “Young Christopher Columbus” by Giulo Monteverde

GIULIO MONTEVERDE
Italian, 1837–1917

"Young Christopher Columbus" (1870)

Patinated bronze on black marble base
Signed MONTEVERDE and inscribed Roma and MCCCCL
Engraved "PROPRIETA JANETTI PADRE FIGLI"
Probably cast in Rome last quarter of the 19th century

22 3/4" H x 8 7/16" diameter (total)
21 1/2" H (bronze)

Literature: This exact cast (not another version) is depicted in "Chiseled with a Brush: Italian Sculpture 1860-1925 from the Gilgore Collection" (Art Intitute of Chicago, 1994, p. 40-41)

Provenance:

Private Collection, Italy
Trinity Fine Arts, London and Rome
Gilgore Collection, Naples, FL

Modeled in 1870, Christopher Columbus as a Youth was awarded the gold medal at the Exposition of Parma in the same year. The original plaster is recorded in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna. The first marble version entered the Palazzo Giovannelli, Venice. Additional full scale marbles are documented at the Castello d’Albertis in Genoa and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, whose acquisition of the model marked its first purchase of a contemporary sculpture. A bronze reduction is recorded in the collection of Leonardo Pozzo, Bistagno.

The present reduction follows the established composition: the young Columbus is seated on a pier block bearing the coat of arms of the Republic of Genoa, flanked by heraldic devices. He holds an open book and turns his gaze outward toward the sea. The theme corresponds to Monteverde’s exploration of historical figures represented in youth, contemporary with The Genius of Franklin of 1871.

It is interesting to note and compare the present example against the other identical cast of this work we have (at the time of this writing) in the gallery. That example was cast by the Parisian foundry Colin et Cie, while this work is almost certainly cast in Italy, probably in Rome.

Examples of this model have been offered sparingly at auction over the decades, including Sotheby's, London on December 14th of 2001 where it achieved 3600 GBP (or roughly $ 5,180 USD at the prevailing conversion rate of 1.4415 at the time of sale). An example cast for the Belgian market, identical except that it has a different stone base configuration, was offered at Sotheby's, London on May 5th of 2016 where it achieved 3750 GBP (or roughly $ 5,440 USD at the prevailing conversion rate of 1.4524 at the time of sale).

Giulio Monteverde was born in 1837 in Bistagno, in the province of Alessandria. In his youth he learned wood carving. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Genoa as a pupil of Santo Varni. In 1865 Monteverde was awarded a stipend to study in Rome where he executed a sculpture of his two daughters. He produced early genre subjects including Children Playing with a Cat (1867).

Monteverde received a gold medal at the Parma Exposition of 1870 for Christopher Columbus as a Youth. In 1871 Monteverde executed The Genius of Franklin and won the silver medal at Milan. His sculpture Jenner Inoculating His Son (1873) was shown in Vienna and takes as its subject the English physician associated with vaccination. Works by Monteverde on related themes and subjects in this period include Simplicity (1872) and Child Playing with a Rooster(1875).

By 1874 Monteverde was receiving commissions for commemorative and funerary monuments, including a monument to Giuseppe Mazzini in Milan (1874). In 1883 he executed a monument to Vincenzo Bellini in Catania. He was nominated senator from the Regno in 1888.

A documented late work is The Soul Above (1911).

Condition: Rubbing and wear to raised elements of the sculpture throughout (garment edges, nose, collar, his back, etc.). Repaired crack to the marble base (visible hairlines). Flaw in the center of the signature (see image). Very good overall presentation. Patina with light wear and variation. Marble base with some minor flea bites. Ready to place.

ref. 601VIK23P