Busto di ragazzo

The concise definition, the simplicity of detail, and the detached forward gaze are the compelling characteristics that one firts sees in "Busto di ragazzo" by Arturo Martini. Created during his stay in Vado Ligure of 1921, this work reveals not only the artist's reflection on Fifteenth-century Italian portraits sculptures (and specifically the masters Donatello, Laurana, Rossellino and Benedetto da Maiano), but also an affinity to the spirit of the Roman journal "Valori Plastici", to which he was introduced by Carlo Carrà. The explicit allusion, in the bust, to an etching by Carrà reproduced on the cover of the IX-XII numbers of "Valori Plastici" (1920) and the praparatory drawing for "Natura morta metafisica" of 1919 by the same, show how Martini attempted to adapt himself to the rigid theoretical schemes of the journal that hoped in a return to the constructive sobriety of the great national tradition. Amongst his most successful examples depicting this influence, "Busto di ragazzo" was first exhibited in Berlin, in April 1921, at a collective exhibition organised by Mario Broglio, promoter of the journal, and the year after in Florence where "Valori Plastici" presented itself at the spring show as an independent group. Howevere, the relationship between Martini and the Roman group were ambiguous: not a single critical pieces on his work would appear in the pages of the journal, in which his works were rarely published and seldom annotated. The gesso of "Busto di ragazzo" was entrusted, together with six other works, to Mario Girardon on the 26th of March 1921 as a guarantee of the contract that bound him to "Valori Plastici" for two years. The work, due to the early rescission of the contract after only ten months, remained in the possesion of Girardon until 1936, when it was redeemed by the artist who would then leave it on Eagle Rosmini. In all likelihood it was she who authorised the casting of two bronzes, one of which entered the Milanese Civiche Raccolte in 1951. [Massimo De Sabbata]