Bidspirit auction | [ART] - A Sculptor’s Plea:

[ART] - A Sculptor’s Plea: Vitali & Tenerani, 1854 - VITALI Vitaliano - Autograph letter of the Italian sculptor Vitaliano Vitali (Forlì 1831 – 1907), a long petition to a certain ‘Count’, dated 15 October 1854, with at the bottom a declaration by Pietro Tenerani, a famous sculptor from Carrara (1789 – Rome 1869), a pupil of the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, basically a certificate of “good talent and progress in art” in favour of his pupil (at the Accademia di S. Luca) Vitaliano Vitali. After an initial training in his hometown, he moved to Florence where he had the opportunity to perfect himself in both painting and sculpture. A fervent patriot, in 1854 he was imprisoned for subversive activities. In ways that recall the examples of Tuscan Purism, he devoted himself mainly to the portrait genre (we record i.e. the portrait of Giovanni Papa, 1853-1856, Bologna, Museo Civico del Risorgimento). A single leaf, main text on 35 lines (Tenerani’s own text on 5 lines, at bottom, left), dim. 275 x 195 mm. Joint : 2 letters from the Italian architect and art historian Luca Beltrami (1854-1933) and a postcard from the Swiss psychiatrist and entomologist Auguste Henri Forel (1848 –1931). (4 items in the lot).