Allegoria della Saggezza, Verità, Amore e Poesia

Leonardo Bistolfi, plaster bas-relief for the bronze plaque commissioned, as per the inscription, by colleagues and friends of the author and playwright Marco Praga in 1911, 25 years after his first play.

At the bottom, in the centre, “TO MARCO PRAGA/ WHO GAVE HIS VIGOROUS ART TO THE THEATRE/ GREATER AWARENESS OF THEIR RIGHTS TO ITALIAN ACTORS / COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS/ XXV YEARS AFTER HIS FIRST PLAY MCMXI”

H. 50 x 62 x 3 cm, monogram bottom right in a frame from the same period. In good condition but with a slight crack in the bottom right-hand corner. Dedicated to Dante Signorini De Palesi in the top right-hand corner, in the sculptor’s hand, “To my friend D.Signorini L.Bistolfi”.

The playwright, librettist and theatre critic Marco Praga ( Milano 1862 - Varese 1929), was among the leading exponents of “Verismo” in the Italian theatre, famed in particular for his plays “Le Vergini” ( 1889 ) and “La Moglie ideale” (1890), this latter masterfully acted at the time by Eleonora Duse. He was Director General of the Italian Authors’ Society (later S.I.A.E) from 1896 to1911. During his term of office he created Mutual Aid for its members, improved its financial situation and extended its network. Already in June 1911, the Society commissioned the Palermitan sculptor Domenico Trentacoste to create a gold medal with Praga’s numismatic portrait. This medal was awarded to Marco Praga on the 10th of February 1912 at a gathering at the Caffè Cova in Milan. On that occasion, various agents of the Society presented the playwright with a collection of plays. Other colleagues, friends and admirers then joined the Society in presenting this plaque in bronze, commissioned from Leonardo Bistolfi, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his first play, (starting from his “L’Amico” of 1886, although his first play was actually “L’Incontro” of 1883). Bistolfi was not named among those present who included Arrigo Boito and the new S.I.A.Director Sabatino Lopez. Praga left his role at the S.I.A. to direct the new Repertory Company at the Manzoni Theatre in Milan (1912-1915) but returned to serve as S.I.A. Chairman from 1918 to 1919.

This plaster plaque is dedicated to another important figure from the theatre world, Dante Signorini De Palesi (Florence 1862-Turin 1931), journalist, playwright, editor of the newspaper the “Gazzetta di Torino”, and among the founders of the Subalpine Press Association.

The same-sized model for the plaque is to be found in the Gipsoteca Leonardo Bistolfi in Casale Monferrato [Inv.n.322]. It is dated “1912” on the reverse. The whereabouts of the original in bronze is unknown nor are other versions of the plaque known, whether in plaster or bronze. With the recent Martelli/BistolfiDonation of 2021/2023, the Gipsoteca of Casale Monferrato now possesses the fine preparatory drawing for the plaque (repr. 1984 p.147) [Inv. n.578 ]. Here, it is curious that the mask of Tragedy (at the bottom left of the plaque ) is missing and the mask of Comedy has taken its place. The pose of the two marionettes is also different, as it is in another drawing which is known, however, only from an illustration.

The four named allegorical figures are, from left to right, “Wisdom” with a lamp whose rays light up the background, “Truth”, “Love” and “Poetry” with her zither. They often occur in the sculptor’s oeuvre. As already noted (1984, p.11), the figures in this bas-relief coincide with some three-dimensional sculptures from the same period: for example, Truth with the timorous Life of the Abegg funeral monument or Poetry with the voluptuous Faith of the Monument to Zanardelli. Moreover, “the abundant classic drapery and the shortened proportions of the lower limbs are extremely indicative of the style destined to dominate in Bistolfi’s reliefs both prior to and during the years of the First World War” (Ibid.). The delightful scene staged at the centre of the plaque shows a tubby Cupid (Amore) manipulating two marionettes, a man and a woman in tragic pose. Maybe with a little touch of humour if we recall that Bistolfi himself used to enliven the evenings at the Circolo degli Artisti in Turin with marionette shows (S.Berresford 2024 p. 30). Moreover, from the late 1870s and his association with the Bohemian Scapigliati in Milan, Bistolfi became a passionate thespian and music-lover. Not by chance, he executed a number of portraits, monuments and plaques for well-known theatre personalities: Belloti Bon, Vittorio Bersezio, Giuseppe Giacosa, Gustavo Modena and Gerolamo Rovetta. His elder son, Giovanni (“Nino”) inherited his passion for the theatre and was to become an esteemed screenwriter and director.

S.Berresford