Bidspirit auction | Mario Rutelli (1859–1941) – Victoria

Mario Rutelli (1859–1941) – Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, Queen of Spain - A half-length sculpture depicting Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, Queen of Spain, following her marriage to Alfonso XIII, King of Spain. Carrara marble (Italy), sculpted and carved. Signed on the reverse: ‘PROF: MARIO RUTELLI. / Rome.’ We believe this work must have been created during Victoria Eugenia’s stay in the Eternal City, probably whilst she was residing at Palazzo Torlonia. Measurements: 82 x 72 x 54 cm. The creator of this work was the Italian sculptor and foundryman Mario Rutelli (Palermo, 1859–1941). The son of the renowned Sicilian architect Giovanni Rutelli, he began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown. After moving to Rome in 1879, he studied under Giulio Monteverde and Benedetto Civiletti, whilst also taking inspiration from artists such as Ercole Rosa. His travels to Siena, Florence and Venice enriched his artistic perspective. This formative period led him to present significant work at the 1878 Universal Exhibition held in Paris, where he joined Auguste Rodin’s studio. His sculptural work soon began to attract significant artistic attention, leading him to create such notable pieces as Hamlet (1880) and The Wrathful Ones (1884), in which life-size bronze figures depict a scene from Dante’s Inferno . This relationship between literature and sculpture would continue to feature in works such as Goethe , in Munich. But it is undoubtedly his monument to the writer and philosopher Nicola Spedalieri (1740–1795) in Piazza Cesarini Sforza in Rome, near the Vatican, where the spirit and work of this thinker are most vividly reflected. His artistic ingenuity is put to use in other artistic disciplines, such as theatre. Unveiled in 1874, the bronze Triumphal Quadriga on the main façade of the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo welcomes visitors as they enter this temple of opera. The urban landscape of certain Italian towns and cities was enhanced by the decorative works designed by Rutelli for some of their squares. Of particular interest are, amongst others, the so-called Triton Fountain in Piazza Guglielmo II in Monreale, a work possibly surpassed in beauty only by his Fountain of the Naiads in Rome. This work distributes and organises the urban layout of the vast Piazza dell’Esedra, whose figures of nymphs created by Rutelli in 1901 form the enclosure and unity of this defining monument. The art critic Francesco Sapori wrote in 1950, regarding Mario Rutelli’s decorative design for this fountain, that “ he succeeded in achieving a vibrant resonance of forms, sensual and musical volumes in the Naiads and Nereids, whom he linked beneath cascading water and amongst gliding fish and birds with outstretched wings ” (F. Sapori: ‘Modern Italian Sculpture’. Rome, 1950, p. 32). The final years of the first decade of the 20th century brought Rutelli undeniable artistic recognition. Among his most significant collaborations with other Italian artists of the time, the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele in Piazza Venezia, Rome, stands out for its historical and political significance. Following the death in 1878 of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first King of Italy, plans were drawn up and the monument that would ultimately become the symbol of Italian unity was erected. Mario Rutelli contributed to part of its decoration, demonstrating his ingenuity, alongside that of other celebrated sculptors of the time such as Adolfo Apollini, Nicola Cantalamessa and Arnaldo Zocchi, in the design and execution of one of the four winged Victories standing before its main façade, in 1910. That same year, Ernesto Basile designed his Monument to the Fallen for Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Palermo, where he benefited from Professor Rutelli’s guidance; the construction culminated in another winged Victory atop a large obelisk, a consequence and reflection of his earlier work at Il Vittoriano in Rome, as mentioned above.