Background
Gemito was born in Naples to a poor woodcutter"s family. The day after his birth, his mother left him on the steps of the dell"Annunziata orphanage and he was taken in to live with the other foundlings.
Gemito was born in Naples to a poor woodcutter"s family. The day after his birth, his mother left him on the steps of the dell"Annunziata orphanage and he was taken in to live with the other foundlings.
Although he worked in various studios of well-known artists in his native Naples, Rome and Paris, he is considered to have largely been self-taught, the reason he produced such distinctive works for that time, replacing sentiment with outstanding realism. He was given the surname Genito, but this somehow became Gemito in orphanage records. On July 30, 1852, he was adopted by a young family that had recently lost a child.
The father was an artisan, and as a young child Gemito was probably encouraged to use his hands.
He also worked in Stanislao Lista"s studio. He moulded the terracotta piece, The Player, (Il Giocatore), one of his most famous works, when only 16 years old.
lieutenant created excitement when exhibited at the Promotrice in Naples, so much so that King Victor Emmanuel II purchased it and presented it to the Museo di Capodimonte for permanent display. lieutenant was at the Paris Salon the previous year where he experienced a singular triumph, with the showing of his Neapolitan Fisherboy, which he had worked on for some years to perfect.
The acclaim surrounding that work alone brought him widespread fame, and lucrative commissions for portraits.
He remained in Paris three years before returning to Naples (1880) after his partner died. In 1883 he once again demonstrated his determination to work outside the norm when he constructed his own foundry on the via Mergellina in Naples. He did so to revive the lost-wax process for bronze casting, which had been used during the Renaissance.
In 1887, Gemito was commissioned to create a marble statue of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to be erected outside the Royal Palace of Naples.
Marble was the least liked medium for Gemito, and he fretted that this work was below his capabilities. He suffered a mental breakdown and withdrew to a one-room apartment, and spent periods in a mental hospital.
Foreign the next 21 years he worked on drawing but remained a recluse, and it wasn"t until 1909 that he resumed sculpting to once again produce masterful works. In his later years, Gemito turned to gold and silver smithing, and his intricate and delicate works are much admired today.
In 1952, a postage stamp was issued in Italy to celebrate the 100 years since Gemito"s birth.
Media related to Vincenzo Gemito at Wikimedia Commons.