Lot 178: Amleto Cataldi Italian, 1882-1930 , Medusa

white marble, on octagonal varnished wood plinth with carved inset rosettes

measurements note 195cm., 77in. base: 70 by 70 by 70cm., 27½ by 27½ by 27½in.

The work of Amleto Cataldi is powerful, innovative and strikingly evocative of Italian modernist sculpture in the first three decades of the 20υth century. His sculpture rarely appears at auction and this remarkable marble figure of Medusa is without doubt his most significant composition to come under the hammer. Born in Naples, Cataldi turned away from the legacy of Gemito and moved to Rome to study at an early stage. His new concept of sculpture was better realised in marble than in bronze, the material of choice for the previous generation. Cataldi, like Adolfo Wildt, was a master craftsman in working marble, enabling him to achieve a specific finish to his surfaces. Cataldi?s career flourished after 1910 with a busy calendar of exhibitions and commissions for many monuments and portrait busts of the Roman nobility. Increasingly he devoted his attention to the study of the nude, exhibiting internationally. This elegant yet uncompromising figure of Medusa compares closely with his group of Portatrice d'Acqua. Both explore the balletic gesture of the outstretched arm, which is at once reminiscent of the Antique Apollo Belvedere and Michelangelo?s Adam from the Sistine Ceiling.

RELATED LITERATURE
Geraci, pp.163-175; Panzetta, vol.1, p.209, fig.445; Vicario, vol.1, pp.302-303