Italian · Realism · Academic art
Giovanni Spertini
b. 1821, Pavia — d. 1895, Milan
Giovanni Spertini (1821–1895) was a Milanese sculptor trained at the Brera Academy, known for intimate marble genre figures such as Girl Writing (1866) and for portrait busts of Risorgimento figures.
1 work in the collection
Works by Giovanni Spertini
Giovanni Spertini (1821–1895) was an Italian sculptor, born in Pavia and active in Milan, who made his name with tender, highly finished marble figures of ordinary life. His best-known work, Girl Writing (signed and dated 1866), belongs to the Pinacoteca di Brera.
Life in brief
Spertini began studying sculpture at the Brera Academy in Milan in the 1830s and also trained privately with established sculptors, including Pietro Magni. He was a contemporary of Vincenzo Vela at Brera. He worked through the decades of Italian unification and was a committed patriot, modeling portrait busts of Risorgimento figures including Giuseppe Mazzini. He was later made an honorary associate of the Brera Academy.
Style
Milanese sculpture of the mid-nineteenth century moved away from Canova's ideal gods toward children, young women and domestic scenes, carved with an almost photographic attention to fabric and skin. Spertini belongs to that turn. His marbles invite slow looking: the crumpled hem of a nightgown, a bare foot curled under a chair.
This kind of subject sold well at exhibitions in Milan, Paris and Philadelphia, and Spertini made his reputation by exhibiting widely. The marble trade of the period depended on workshops of skilled carvers, and the finish of his pieces shows how far Lombard studios could push the illusion of soft cloth and skin.
Girl Writing
Girl Writing (La scrittrice or Fanciulla che scrive) shows a barefoot girl in a nightgown bent over a small table, pen in hand. It was exhibited at Brera in 1867 and sent to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878. Spertini also showed a Columbus at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, where it won a prize.
Where to see his work
Girl Writing belongs to the Pinacoteca di Brera and is on deposit at Milan's Galleria d'Arte Moderna (Villa Reale). A 2014 monograph by C. Calci, Dal gesso al marmo, is the main modern study.
Questions & answers
Who sculpted Girl Writing (La scrittrice)?
Girl Writing, also called La scrittrice or Fanciulla che scrive, is a marble by the Milanese sculptor Giovanni Spertini, signed and dated 1866. It shows a barefoot girl in a nightgown writing at a small table and belongs to the Pinacoteca di Brera.
Where can I see Giovanni Spertini's sculpture?
His best-known marble, Girl Writing, is owned by the Pinacoteca di Brera and displayed on deposit at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan's Villa Reale. Other works and portrait busts are in Lombard collections.
What was Giovanni Spertini known for?
Spertini was known for naturalistic marble genre figures of children and young women and for portrait busts of Risorgimento patriots such as Mazzini. He trained at the Brera Academy and was later made an honorary associate there.