Bozzetto per il ritratto di Francesca 1941

Bozzetto per il ritratto di Francesca 1941
Bronze.
Unique piece.
22.83 x 7.87 x 5.91 in.
Artwork accompanied by certificate issued by Inge Manzù, and registered at "Studio Manzù", Aprilia, under the number 9/2003.

Sketch made for the famous 'Ritratto di Francesca Blanc', a beautiful bronze depicting the daughter of the Roman baroness Anita Blanc, exhibited at the IV Quadrenniale in Rome in 1943 and part of the Vatican collections since 1975. Baroness Blanc commissioned Manzù to sculpt his daughter's portrait in 1940, and the following year the sculptor fired the work, with which he won the Grand Prize for Sculpture two years later. The design phase was long and intense, including sketches and drafts made partly in Milan, where the author lived, and partly in Rome, where he went to meet the young model. "I think I ended up in 1941 - recalls the artist - happy to have made this flower without leaves, because in the face of childlike beauty the soul feeds on purity".