International studio (19.1903)

HEAD OF AN OLD MAN BY D. TRENTACOSTE

notice. It has the merit of individuality, and gives
a strong impression of artistic ability, and still more
of—" the hardy Norse." A. T.
T *^LORENCE.—Thosewho are familiar with
H ^ contemporary sculpture already know and
admire Trentacoste's genius. Intellec-
tually it is akin to that of the poet
Giovanni Pascoli: it displays an exquisite sense of
form and measure wedded to a haunting insistance
on the pathos of human life in the grip of Fate.
Trentacoste rarely lapses into sentimentality; arid
this means that his figures, individual though they
be, are yet lifted by his art into the realms of types,
that they wake each a train of thought, of memory,
of speculation, which goes far beyond the limits of
the work of art to penetrate into the realm of laws
and abstractions. Yet the work of art, too, pro-
duces in the spectator the intense satisfaction that
comes from a sense of hnality; a necessary thing,
indeed, for the formation of a type.

Look, for instance, at the bronze CfnraMA?.
are cigar-ends ; and a wrafc/i? is one of those men,
familiar to residents in Italy, who prowl about the
towns after nightfall swinging a lantern before them,
in search of <rz';r<r<%c. Needless to say, these men
represent the most abject stage of misery. This
bronze depicts not only wretchedness, which the
146

"CtCCAIOLO:" STATUETTE BY D. TRENTACOSTE

bent shoulders express, but the habit of wretched-
ness, the weight of never-ending misery, the blind
groping through life of the man who is too crushed
to raise his head and aspire.

I well remember the impression of intense plea-
sure made upon me the first time I saw a work of
Trentacoste. It was the head of Q35/WM, re-
produced on page 145, which was exhibited at one
of the annual Florentine exhibitions. The marble
itself is beautiful, with creamy reflections that add
by their softness to the peaceful sadness of the face.
The water has purged away all passion and mad-
ness; but though it has done its work it remains
itself invisible, and is but suggested by the wisp of
hair still falling over the closed eyelid and adhering
to the face. The taper f ngers and the Howers add
to the poetry of the whole. The artist who could
conceive this must have identihed himself for a
season with Shakespeare's heroine; and it is in fact
by means of such identifrcation that Trentacoste
creates.