donato barcaglia · (1849–1930)
Lo Spazzacamino
TEchnical form
| ARTIST | Donato Barcaglia |
| DATE | Late 19th century • Verismo |
| material | White Carrara marble |
| DIMENSIONS | Height 111 cm • Base 46 x 42 cm |
| Signature | D. Barcaglia Milano |
| PROVENANCE | |
| CONSERVATION | Private Collection • Italy |
about the work
This marble exemplifies Barcaglia’s abiding interest in finely carved, highly realistic genre subjects. A poor boy in worn clothes takes his lunch break, his handmade broom tucked under the left arm and a scraper under the right. A piece of bread rests on the couch beside him while, absorbed in the moment, he sews a loose button back onto his vest.
The sculptor’s virtuosity is on full display in the naturalistic treatment of the boy’s garments, riddled with holes and patient repairs, and his ill-fitting shoes through which the heels have worn. Down to the moss creeping across the base, every detail attests to an exceptional command of the medium.
The composition proved enduringly popular. A variant, in which the boy polishes his shoe, is a beloved feature of Paddington Gardens in Marylebone, testimony to the lasting appeal of the model.
the ARTIST
donato barcaglia
Pavia, 1849 — 1930
Born in Pavia, Donato Barcaglia trained in Milan and Rome during a period of outstanding technical accomplishment in marble carving. Renowned for the exceptional quality of his work in the medium, he soon set aside the last vestiges of the neoclassicism that had shaped his early efforts in favour of a personal form of verismo.
His Vendemmiatore, carved at just seventeen and installed in the Palazzo Reale in Milan, announced a distinguished career. Barcaglia went on to exhibit to great acclaim across Europe and America, as far afield as Boston, Philadelphia and Buenos Aires. Never turning his back on his native Italy, he also produced several public monuments for Milan and its neighbouring cities.
