Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

3. Vincenzo Gemito, Pescatore, Museo del Bargello, (detail). Vincenzo Gemito, Head of a Young Fisherman, (detail).
Pescatore, bought in 1879 by the painter Jean-Louis-
Ernest Meissonier, one of Gemito’s friends, who had
helped him during his stay in Paris, became, after
1891, as a consequence of Meissonier’s death, part of
the collection of Achille Minozzi, who in turn donated
it to the Museo Nazionale di Scultura del Bargello
of Florence, thus consecrating Gemito’s fame as a
sculptor.
The present Testa di giovane pescatore (head of a
young fisherman) is one of the finest examples of
Gemito’s everyday-life portraiture. The bust, with the
head slightly inclined to the left in order to balance the
flask resting on the right shoulder, which is covered by
a net, is an original, unique invention for this type of
subject.
Here Gemito has joined two humble objects, symbols
of his favourite themes: the flask, called mùmmulu in
the dialect of Campania, a little terracotta jar with a
narrow neck and slightly rounded body for carrying
drinking water which is the symbol of the water
vendor; and the piece of net draped on the figure’s
shoulder, which is the symbol of the fisherman.
Besides this bronze specimen of the sculpture, only
two others are known. One of these is in the Museo
di Capodimonte, known as Giovane pastore degli
Abruzzi (young shepherd from Abruzzi) (fig.2); in
this sculpture there is no flask. The other specimen
is another bronze bust, identical to the present
one, except that the base has been moulded in Art
Nouveau style described as Neapolitan Boy with a
Flask 5 .
We should also point out that in Naples, in a private
collection, and before that in the Minozzi Collection,
there is a bronze copy of a flask like ours, held by
a hand with forearm 6 . This flask is described as a
mummara (a Hispanic term that derives from late Latin
and means ‘breast’ or ‘suckling’). Both these two types
of jars, the mummara and the mùmmulu of the dialect
of Campania, appear together, the former as a large
container and the latter as a small one, in Gemito’s
Acquaiolo, of 1880 7 . This accurate distinction between
the two vessels is undoubtedly a mark of Gemito’s
closeness to working-class culture.
The modelling of the Testa di Giovane Pescatore,
(in which the signature Gemito has been made in
the casting wax and not carved later in the bronze)
reveals a higher standard of quality and refinement
than is usually found in the bronze sculptures of the
time. The modelling of the boy’s eyes and nose in
this sculpture compares closely with the features of
the Pescatore of 1875 in the Bargello. The shaping
of the tufts of hair, eyebrows and eyelashes has the
same expressive force in the two sculptures (figs. 3-4).
Another typical feature of Gemito’s technique are the
strokes made with modelling tools to the eyes, which
achieve an effect of pictorial shading. Undoubtedly the
resemblance between these two faces is very strong
and the similarities in style, suggest that the present
sculpture also dates from around 1875.
Translated from a text by Marco Fagioli
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