Vincenzo Gemito, a renowned sculptor responsible for one of the statues adorning the western façade of the Royal Palace in Naples, was born on 16th July 1852.
Born in Naples, Gemito’s early life was challenging. His mother left him on the steps of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata Maggiore orphanage the day after his birth. After two weeks in the orphanage, a family adopted him. His adoptive father, an artisan, likely encouraged his early interest in working with his hands. By age 10, Gemito was apprenticed in Emanuele Caggiano’s studio. He enrolled in the Naples Academy of Fine Arts by age 12.
Gemito’s talent for realism is evident in works like Il giocatore di carte (The Card Player), which he created at just 16. This sculpture, depicting a boy engrossed in his cards, so impressed King Vittorio Emanuele II that he purchased it for permanent display in the Museo di Capodimonte.
Unlike many sculptors of his time who favoured romanticised or fantastical subjects, Gemito drew inspiration from everyday life in Naples. His attention to detail and natural poses is exemplified in Il pescatorello (The Fisherboy), showing a boy examining a fish he has just caught.
In 1877, Gemito moved to Paris, where he befriended French artist Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier. He exhibited his works in major salons and at the Universal Exposition of 1878. His Fisherboy, unveiled at the Paris Salon, won him widespread acclaim and numerous portrait commissions. After three years in Paris, he returned to Naples, spending some time on Capri, where he married.
The Royal Palace in Naples
Back in Naples, Gemito built his own foundry on Via Mergellina, reviving a Renaissance lost-wax technique for bronze casting.
In 1888, he received a commission to sculpt a marble statue of Charles V for the Royal Palace. The palace features eight statues of former kings in niches along its side facing the Piazza del Plebiscito. The statues, displayed chronologically, start with Roger II of Sicily (r.1105-1154) and ending with Vittorio Emanuele II, who unified Italy in 1861.
Gemito sculpted the statue of Charles V, the fifth in the sequence. Charles V was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1556 and the King of Naples as the King of Spain from 1516 to 1556.
However, Gemito struggled with the project, suffering a mental breakdown due to his dislike of working with marble and self-doubt. He completed the statue but then withdrew from public life, living as a recluse and producing only drawings for the next 21 years.
Medusa masterpiece
In 1909, Gemito resumed sculpting. In 1911 he created a masterpiece in partial gilt silver, a severed head of Medusa. The work was noted for its realistic expression and intricate detail.
He derived the composition from the Tazza Farnese cameo but transformed it into an entirely new kind of sculptural object. Using the lost-wax technique he had revived, he concentrated on the face of the two-sided relief. However, on closer examination, you can see the back was textured with snakeskin.
In 1952, Italy commemorated Gemito’s life with a postage stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Recommended Book
If you would like to know more about the Kingdom of Naples, we recommend:
An English translation of a key Italian history of the Kingdom of Naples from the death in 1250 of the German Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen who ruled Naples and Sicily, down through the reign of King Ferdinand of Naples in the late 1480s, shortly before Naples became a province of Spain.
The author, Angelo di Costanzo (1507-1591), was one of the greatest Italian lyric poets of the 16th Century. Yet he is better remembered for his History which he first published in its entirety in 1581.
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