VINCENZO GEMITO | Nettuno giovinetto (The Young Neptune)

Overall the condition of the bronze is very good, with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. There is a small break, or possibly a casting fissure, at the top of the trident below the fork and the trident is slightly bent. There is some blackish dirt in the crevices, particularly to the folds of drapery below the neck, and to the back at the spine. There is some minor pitting to the bronze, including to the back. There is minor greening to the back of the proper left leg.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The two great influences on the art of Vincenzo Gemito were classical sculpture and the street life of his native city, Naples. Gemito’s genius lay in his ability to fuse these influences and create works of a startling originality. As a newborn baby Gemito was left on the steps of a Neapolitan foundling hospital. He was adopted by a poor artisan and his early years were very much like those of the street urchins he famously portrayed. He was apprenticed to a painter at the age of nine and quickly developed a precocious artistic talent. By the age of sixteen he was exhibiting at the prestigious Promotice di Napoli and his work was acquired by the city of Naples. Gemito travelled little, but he did visit Paris and exhibited his Neapolitan Fisherboy at the Salon of 1878.

Although Gemito had a formal artistic education – he enrolled at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts at the age of twelve – he was largely self-taught. His primary source of inspiration was the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples. He steeped himself in the museum’s pre-eminent collection of classical sculpture and archaeological finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. These revered works were copied, re-worked and re-imagined by the sculptor, who infused them with an impudent vitality drawn from contemporary life.

Gemito was obsessed by the facture of sculpture, paying close attention to the modelling, casting and chasing of his works. Inspired by the Renaissance master Benvenuto Cellini he set up his own foundry on the Via Mergellina. After a meteoric rise and an intense period of artistic activity Gemito had a mental crisis in the late 1880s and was committed to an asylum. He escaped and became a recluse living in a single room for a period of twenty years. During this time he produced not one sculptural work, confining himself solely to drawing. The sculptor emerged from this isolation around 1909 with a new direction. The soft modelling of the early period was replaced by a strong sense of line and detail.

Carlo Siviero described the Nettuno in 1953 as ‘Leaping from the waves, in the frenzy of the sea wind, quivering within the folds of a cloak which stretches out like a wing..’ and called it ‘the ultimate sculptural creation’ of Gemito’s art. The movement captured in the spiralling form certainly seems to defy the limitations of a static art. The modelling is characterised by a certain agitation, which enlivens the figure. The Nettuno recalls the Neapolitan boys of Gemito’s first period, such as the Acquaiolo, but transcends their insolent realism. The artist no longer shocks, but enchants.

A unique silver and silver-gilt version of the present model was sold in these rooms on 16 December 2015, lot 116.

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Fogelman et al., Italian and Spanish Sculpture. Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection, Los Angeles, 2002, pp. 338-343, no. 43; K. McArthur and K. Ganz, Vincenzo Gemito (1852 – 1929). Drawing and Sculpture in Naples & Rome, exh. cat. Kate Ganz Gallery, 2000, p. 44. cat. 19; C. Siviero, Gemito, Naples, 1953, p. 89