D'ORSI, Achille

Italian sculptor. The son of a small landowner, in 1857 he entered the Regio Istituto di Belle Arti in Naples, where he studied under the guidance of the sculptor Tito Angelini (1806-1878). He first exhibited in 1863, with the terracotta Wounded Soldier of Garibaldi (Naples, Capodimonte), a work inspired by Garibaldi’s campaign against the Bourbon rulers of Naples. D’Orsi’s main interest, however, was in subjects from everyday life, and this allied him to the contemporary artistic and literary current of Verismo. Among his works of this kind were his plaster statue of A Fisherman (1864; untraced) and the Old Woman at the Grave (terracotta, 1876; Naples, Accademia di Belle Arti), which have affinities with sculptures by his principal rival, Vincenzo Gemito.

He continued his studies in Rome, then returned to Naples where he settled. he exhibited his realist sculptures in Naples in 1877 and in Paris in 1878. From the beginning of the twentieth century he participated in the Venice Biennale.

During his career he was commissioned for executing numerous busts and statues, among them the monument of Umberto I of Italy, the busts of Philip Palizzi and Salvatore Farina. One of his great marble statues is that of Alfonso of Aragon which is located in front of the façade of the Palazzo Reale in Naples.

Proximus tuus

The statue Proximus tuus (Latin, “your neighbour”) placed D’Orsi among the greatest exponents of the Italian social realism. The gaunt figure of the digger sitting on the floor with legs spread and expression dazed by fatigue is taken as an emblem of the lower classes, reduced to a state of hopeless degradation. There exist many replicas and excerpts in painting. The composition was probably based on a drawing by Millet.

The Proximus tuus was an isolated incident in the production of D’Orsi who later devoted himself to more traditional subjects.

Proximus Tuus

Proximus tuus