Vincenzo Vela Italian, 1820-1891

Vincenzo Vela was one of the greatest Italian sculptors of the 19th century. He studied at the Accademia di Brera from 1836. Vela was deeply influenced by Bartolini's La Fiducia in Dio  which was exhibited in Milan in 1837. Bartolini's naturalism coupled with a classical sentiment inspired Vela to take his own work in a more realist direction.

Vela was a fervent patriot and liberal and took part in the political stirrings which were taking place in the late 1840's in Italy. He modelled his plaster Spartaco in Rome in 1847-8, intending to exhibit it in the Esposizione di Brera of 1848. However, the revolutions of 1848, in which Vela took part, overshadowed his plans. When he exhibited the marble version in 1851 at the Esposizione di Brera in Milan it had a strong political resonance, as Spartacus, the rebel slave, seemed to contemporaries to encapsulate their own political struggles. The marble was shown in Paris in the 1855 Exposition Universelle, where it had an enthusiatic reception. The plaster is now in the Museo Vela di Ligornetto whilst the marble is in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva. Another marble version is in the Palazzo Civico di Lugano, (illustrated in Vicario).

RELATED LITERATURE
Vicario, p.1086-1089