Giacomo Manzù

GIACOMO MANZÙ (Bergamo, 1908 - Rome, 1991)
"Cardinale in piedi".
Bronze, with brown patina.
Unique piece.
Stamp "MANZÙ NFMM" on the back.
On bronze base.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist in 1959. By descent. Private collection, Monaco.
We thank the Fondazione Giacomo Manzù for confirming the authenticity of this work, which is referenced in their archives.
A certificate of authenticity will be given to the buyer.
Measurements: 61 cm (height); 80 × 14 × 17 cm (total).

This sculpture belongs to Giacomo Manzù's most iconic and recognizable series: the Cardinals, begun in the 1930s and which have become the sculptor's authentic visual signature. Through these figures, Manzù approached the ecclesiastical hierarchy from a profoundly humanistic viewpoint, moving away from the exaltation of power to focus on introspection, solitude and the silent dignity of the individual.

The composition is articulated from an imposing verticality and an extreme formal synthesis. The body is enveloped by the pluvial layer, conceived as an almost conical volume that reduces the gesture and concentrates all the expressive force in the rhythm of the form. This economy of detail reinforces the sensation of solemnity and recollection, turning the cardinal into an archetype.

The patina enhances the texture of the bronze, preserving the traces of modeling and giving the surface an organic quality. The face, barely suggested under the mitre, conveys a restrained presence. This tension between monumentality and human fragility places the work as a paradigmatic example of the so-called Italian sculptural realism.

The end of the fifties, the period to which this piece acquired in 1959 belongs, marks Manzù's absolute maturity, coinciding with his full international consecration. In those years he developed some of his most important commissions, such as the famous Door of Death for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

Manzù, trained in artisan workshops, built his own language influenced by Renaissance sculpture and Etruscan art, but profoundly modern in its conception. Far from the radical abstract avant-garde, he developed a figurative sculpture of great spiritual and human density.

In 1977 the Monumento al Partigiano was inaugurated in Bergamo, and in 1979 he donated to the Italian State his important collection assembled in Ardea. His last great public work was a six-meter monumental sculpture installed in 1989 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Today his legacy is preserved in key institutions, such as the GAMeC in Bergamo, and remains an essential reference of modern sculptural realism.