Ferdinando Vichi

FERDINANDO VICHI (Florence, 1875 - 1945).
"Seated Lady".
Marble and bronze.
Signed.
Measurements: 84 x 41 x 46 cm; 101 x 52 x 52 x 52 (base).
Ferdinando Vichi was part of the group of talented Tuscan sculptors who worked in association with the Bazzanti Gallery in Florence, being one of the central figures in the Florentine sculptural production of the late nineteenth century. Born into a noble family, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. At a very early age, Vichi exhibited at the Paris Salon, where his work "La bagnante" was awarded and quickly sold. Subsequently, he worked in Germany, France, England and even in America and India. He worked mainly in his hometown, where he presented his works on numerous occasions at the Salon. At the end of the 19th century, he ran an alabaster sculpture workshop in Florence. His works, in marble or alabaster, show his exceptional technical mastery, particularly in his female figures, with sinuous curves and introspective faces. Like many other sculptors of the late 19th century, Vichi was often inspired by moral literature, including that of Greek mythology. Throughout his career he worked on a variety of subjects, including Romantic portraits, Orientalist themes and copies of Renaissance and Baroque pieces. He worked on the portrait of Mussolini (not preserved), depicted in a Roman tunic, which critics praised for its "Michelangeloesque sobriety".
A woman, dressed in elegant clothes, rests peacefully on a scissor chair characterized both by its marked curvature and by the lion's head-shaped ends of its armrests. The distracted and restless gaze of the protagonist captures a traditional image in the history of art, that of the model posing in a relaxed posture before the artist, an intimate and everyday moment in which Vichi seeks to represent his models thoughtful and reflective. However, here naturalism is combined with the sculptor's handprint, which is reflected in the irregularity of the textures, and the image is completed three-dimensionally, presenting itself as a fragment of reality and not only as a plastic experiment. The piece rises on a column of purely classical inspiration, raised on an octagonal foot, thus seeking balance and essential reciprocity between the elements represented, which, by joining together, form a new aesthetically inseparable unit.