A sculptor, Baroni studied at the Genoese Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti. From 1901 onwards he began to exhibit at the Società Promotrice Genovese and then took part in other exhibitions in Milan, Rome and Paris. In 1910, he won the competition for the 'Monumento ai Mille' in Genoa-Quarto. Inaugurated in 1915, this monument revealed a keen interest in Rodin as well as the Art Nouveau-symbolist influence of Leonardo Bistolfi. Having enlisted voluntarily in the Alpine troops, Baroni's war experiences played a dominant role in his adoption of a rigorous, severe and yet dramatic language. In 1920 he entered the national competition for the 'Monumento al Fante' destined for the Monte San Michele, producing an original, anti-rhetorical design. However the work aroused strong negative opinions, that convinced Mussolini that the monument was not realizable. Baroni nevertheless continued to work on it: numerous studies were exhibited at the Venice Biennales of 1926, 1928, 1930 and 1932, while paradoxically Mussolini himself bought the bronze model. Baroni's last works, characterized by greater realism, conforming to the classicist monumentalism of the period, were the numerous statues for the Foro Mussolini in Rome (1933-34) and the figures for the 'Monumento al Duca d'Aosta' in Turin. The competition for the monument in Turin placed Baroni head to head with Arturo Martini; althought Baroni won, he died before he could finish the work, which was realized from his studies and models by Publio Morbiducci.
See Caterina Olgese Spingardi, 'Eugenio Baroni', biographical notes, in Penelope Curtis (editor) 'Dead Language Sculpture, Sculpture from Fascist Italy', catalogue of the exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds and at the MART, Rovereto; 2003; pages 136-137. |
