CARADOSSI, Vittorio

Italian sculptor. He studied sculpture under Augusto Rivalta (1837-1925) at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. His genre epitomizes fin-de-siecle Tuscan sculpture. Technically superb, most of his oeuvre is dominated by highly-decorative groups and single nude figures in various symbolic or allegorical guises. He is renowned for his large sensuous nudes, but was also commissioned for numerous important public monuments. His most famous is the monument to the Renaissance artist Desiderio da Settignano, and the model for this was exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900.

In works such as Three Mermaids and Smoke Sweeping up to the Clouds, Caradossi was clearly catering to a strong demand from an international clientele for elaborate and sensual compositions.

Amenaide, the Operatic Heroine

Amenaide is a character from the Italian opera Tancredi by Gioachino Rossini. Two versions of the opera exist, one which ends tragically like in the original play by Voltaire, and another version which concludes happily. In both, Amenaide is the young innocent daughter of a noble family who falls in love with the hero of the tale, Tancredi. In the tragic version, Tancredi marries Amenaide just in time for him to die in his wife’s arms from a wound received in battle.

The statue is signed: Prof. V, Caradossi. and inscribed: TANCREDI.

Amenaide, the Operatic Heroine

Shooting Stars