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VINCENZO GEMITO
(Naples 1852 - 1929)
HEAD OF MEDUSA, 1925

Gilt bronze, mounted in a gilt copper plate signed and dated with chisel V. GEMITO 1925. In its original frame. The sculpture 101 x 71 mm. (max); the plate Ø 153 mm. The frame c. 275 x 275 mm. The quality of the casting as well as the chiselled signature and date, lead to the conclusion that the sculpture was certainly finished under Gemito's supervision.
Together with Alexander the Great, the face of Medusa is one of Gemito’s most addressed subjects of his original reinterpretation of the ancient Mediterranean myths. These themes, which drew inspiration from the Hellenistic sculptures of the Archaeological Museum of Naples, developed starting from his resumption of activity as a sculptor, after the mental collapse, at the end of the first decade of the 20th century. The most celebrated example of the theme of Medusa in Gemito’s sculpted work is surely the magnificent silver relief of 1911, now at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles; But in the last two decades of his life Gemito has created several other versions, in small format, of the same theme.

Vincenzo Gemito, one of the premier Italian sculptors of the 19th century, was essentially self-taught. Discovered on the foundling hospital's doorstep and adopted by a poor artisan, Gemito got work in a sculptor's studio when he was a boy. In his youth, he worked for two local sculptors, Emanuele Caggiano and Stanislao Lista, but neither seems to have had much stylistic influence on him. Gemito's realistic representations of Neapolitan street life marked a dramatic shift from earlier artists' sentimentalizing. His sculpture was so immediately alive and strong that he became famous at a very early age. Gemito sold a statue to the city of Naples when he was sixteen years old; and he was only twenty-one years old when he was commissioned to model the portrait of Giuseppe Verdi. Gemito's Pescatorello (Neapolitan Fisherboy) brought him acclaim at the 1877 Paris Salon, and he stayed in Paris for three years.
Gemito was also an immensely gifted draughtsman. After completing an important public commission, the portrait of Charles V, in 1887, he suffered a mental collapse and gave up sculpture almost entirely: he withdrew to one room, concentrating on drawing and seeing few friends. Around 1909 Gemito resumed sculpting, incorporating Hellenistic influences into his work, inspired by the works of art that the diggings of Pompeii and Herculaneum had brought to light and which were exhibited in the Archeological Museum in Naples. His sculpture demonstrated a delicate sensitivity and detail that ultimately derived from his drawings.