ITALIAN BUST OF A WOMAN, Antonio Tantardini

1829 - 1879

Antonio Tantardini

signed: ANT.NIO TANTARDINI. MILANO
white marble, on a white marble socle
72cm., 28 3/8 in. overall

Provenance:
This beautiful bust shows a contemplative young woman with an elaborate up-do and finely rendered jewellery. It epitomises the virtuoso carving technique of Antonio Tantardini who, in a country famed for its skilled marble carvers, was one of the very best exponents of this craft. Vicario describes Tantardini's skill as 'un abilità tecnica stupefacente' ('a stupefying technical ability').

Trained by Pompeo Marchesi at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, Antonio Tantardini is celebrated for his achievement of verismo in Italian Sculpture. His works La leggitrice and La schiava, a combination of realism and Romanticism, show an affinity with Lorenzo Bartolini’s oeuvre, of which Tantardini was a follower. He sculpted a number of important monuments, including the Cavour Monument in Milan, the statue of Arnold de Brescia, and the Independence Monument in Vienna.

RELATED LITERATURE
V. Vicario, Gli scultori italiani dal Neoclassicismo al Liberty, 1994, vol. 2, pp. 1021-1024; A. Panzetta, Nuovo dizionario degli scultori Italiani dell'Ottocento e del primo Novocento, Turin, 2003, vol. 2, p. 902