Читать книгу The Museo Vincenzo Vela in Ligornetto - Marc-Joachim Wasmer - Страница 17

Lorenzo Vela, The Monkey Carving a Chicken, undated, plaster original.

Lorenzo Vela (1812–1897)

Eight years older than his brother Vincenzo, Lorenzo Vela was born in Ligornetto on 4 July 1812. He began his training in 1832 in Milan as a stonecutter at Brera Academy, attending courses with the Ticinese Ferdinando Albertolli (1781–1844) in the Scuola d’Ornato. Stylistically, he is associated with the sculptor Benedetto Cacciatori (1793–1871), with whom he worked as the main collaborator in the beginning of his artistic career. From 1860 to 1891, he taught decorative sculpture at Brera, passing on his eclectic, historicist style to the successive generation of artists. He died in Milan on 10 January 1897.

Following the example of Vincenzo and Spartaco Vela, he bequeathed his possessions to the Swiss Confederation, including his prestigious collection of 19th century Lombard and Piedmontese paintings.

A respected artist himself during his lifetime, he is considered the true discoverer of Vincenzo Vela and was in fact soon eclipsed by his celebrated brother. Beginning in the early 1830s as a specialist in decorative sculpture in and around Milan, Lorenzo was in charge of decorating many buildings and tombs, by means of which he also created opportunities for his brother Vincenzo to work with the Lombard elite. The two brothers collaborated on various occasions, for example, on the Chapel of the Villa Borromeo d’Adda in Arcore. Beginning in the 1840s, Lorenzo concentrated on animal and genre sculptures made of plaster, marble and terracotta. While Lorenzo’s autonomous works such as Interrupted Study (V) and Victim of the Inquisition (1860) show an affinity with Vincenzo Vela’s stylistic language, they have a more sentimental quality and do not achieve Vincenzo’s impressive formal refinement (see V and VII).