In Fonderia 6 2023

ARTE E FONDERIA
Fig. 1 - Fonderia Giovanni Di Maggio, Candelabri per la Banca d’Italia, 1925
circa, Palermo.
Fig. 1 - Giovanni Di Maggio Foundry, Candelabra for the Bank of Italy, circa
1925, Palermo.
Un elemento nuovo, portato in evidenza da chi
scrive durante il convegno romano, è che, nonostante
il brulicare di iniziative industriali, a Palermo
mancasse una vera e propria fonderia
artistica dedita alla fusione di grandi sculture
bronzee, monumenti che, dopo il 1860, costellarono
le città italiane per celebrare i padri della
nazione finalmente riunita.
In effetti non rimane alcuna evidenza di tale funzione
da parte della Fonderia Oretea, probabilmente
perché l’attività richiedeva uno sforzo
specifico e altamente qualificato, non significativo
nell’ottica delle operazioni molto più remunerative
verso cui la fabbrica era orientata. Così,
per sopperire a tale vuoto, nel 1892 fu creata a
Palermo la Fonderia Rutelli dai fratelli Salvatore
e Mario, quest’ultimo già affermato scultore, che
chiamò da Roma il fonditore Oreste Cassetti.
La Fonderia Rutelli merita ancora un adeguato
studio e approfondimento, tanto più che il suo
catalogo è pressoché dimenticato, eppure l’impresa
lavorò per un trentennio, fino al 1922 circa.
Tra le prime opere, di cui lo scrivente ha fatto
which numerous elegant cast-iron street candelabra
remain in the same city (Fig. 1).
A new element, highlighted by the undersigned
during the conference in Rome, is that despite
the bustle of industrial initiatives, Palermo lacked
a real artistic foundry dedicated to the fusion of
large bronze sculptures, monuments that, after
1860, were dotted around Italian cities to celebrate
the fathers of the finally reunited nation.
In fact, there is no evidence of this activity by the
Oretea Foundry, probably because it required
a specific, highly qualified effort, and was insignificant
compared to the much more profitable
operations to which the factory was oriented. So
to make up for this vacuum, in 1892 the Rutelli
Foundry was set up in Palermo by brothers Salvatore
and Mario, the latter already an established
sculptor, who called the founder Oreste
Cassetti from Rome.
The Rutelli Foundry still deserves proper investigation
and study, especially since its catalogue
is almost forgotten, despite the company working
for thirty years, until about 1922. Among the
first works, mentioned by the undersigned with a
contribution devoted to the same subject during
the conference “Decorative Arts, Customs and
Society in the Mediterranean between the 18th
and 19th Centuries”, held in Trapani on 21 and
22 April 2023, for the University of Palermo, is
the bust of Francesco Crispi signed and dated
by Mario Rutelli and his foundry in 1893, kept in
Palermo City Hall. It was followed, among other
sculptures, by the Iracondi in 1894, today at the
GNAM in Rome, by La Nautica, in the same year,
which should have been part of the Palermo
monument to Ignazio Florio senior and was then
located in Piazza Castelnuovo, and, in 1901, by
the four Naiads of the fountain in Piazza della Repubblica
still in Rome, also by the sculptor Rutelli.
So, highly visible statues, not only for their now
famous author, but also for the foundry, because
they helped to create its own market in competition
with the most famous and established companies
on the continent.
Because of this type of work, the Florio owners of
Oretea presumably relied on Rutelli. In fact, even
the monument to Ignazio Snr. on the island of Favignana
was cast by Rutelli in 1896 on the model
by the sculptor Francesco Cocchiara (Fig. 2).
But many other artists certainly availed of Rutelli,
including Antonio Ugo from Palermo in 1897,
who with the foundry signed the bust of the architect
Giovan Battista Filippo Basile kept in the
106 In Fonderia