Adolfo Wildt
The last symbolist
“A work of art is not made for the eyes, it is made for the soul." - Adolfo Wildt
Blending simplicity and sophistication, the works of Milanese artist Adolfo Wildt (1868-1931) heralded modern art in Italy. Born into a family of limited means, at the age of twelve Wildt was apprenticed to Giuseppe Grandi (1843-1894) in Milan, the leading sculptor of the Scapigliatura movement, before learning the art of marble carving from Federico Villa. In 1894 Wildt entered into an unusual arrangement with Franz Rose (1854 -1912), a Prussian collector, whereby Rose would give him an annual retaining fee in return for being offered the first copy of all of his his sculptures. With this patronage, free from the shackles of financial worry, Wildt could develop his artistic vision, exhibiting regularly in Milan, Monaco, Zurich, Berlin and Dresden.
Wildt went on became Italy's foremost symbolist sculptor, with his contorted, often tortured, figures frequently approaching the grotesque in their exaggerated pathos. The remarkable translucence and the extreme smoothness of their surfaces gives his sculptures a purity and integrity that coexist with an almost frenzied dramatic feeling. Straddling tradition and the avant-garde, Wildt’s unique aesthetic style, derived in part from his study of neo-Gothic art, was strongly influenced by the the Secessionist movement, combining expressionism with recollections of ancient and Renaissance art.
After the death of Rose in 1912, Wildt was forced to approach a wider market for his work. He was awarded the Principe Umberto prize in 1913 and his career continued in ascendancy through the 1910s and 20s with critical acclaim. In 1921, he published his treatise on sculpture, L'arte del marmo, and, from 1921 to 22, he ran his own art school in Milan, set up along the lines of a medieval workshop, and specialized in marble carving. The following year, Wildt was appointed head of Sculpture at the Brera Academy, where Lucio Fontana and Fausto Melotti were among his most distinguished pupils.
Adolfo Wildt, L’anima e la sua Veste (1916) Photograph: ©Sotheby’s
Themes of religion, faith, and the duality of the human body and soul were the focus of Wildt's symbolist artistic sensibility. These interests can be explained, at least in part, due the intense suffering he experienced as a result of clinical depression between 1906 and 1909. During this period Wildt questioned the meaning and form of his art, aiming to make a connection with antiquity and to “rebel completely against the art of today”. In the years that followed Wildt’s work expressed empathy for the plight of their subjects, whether Jesus Christ (Cristo del sepolcro, circa 1919), the Virgin (Vergine, 1924) or Saints (in particular, the martyred Santa Lucia, 1926). Within these groups lies an often complex, sometimes concealed, web of symbolism and abstract narrative which links back to the sculptor’s own inner torment.
In particular, L’anima e la sua Veste, presented at the 1922 Venice Biennale, testifies to Wildt’s personal struggle as well as the sculptor’s interest in how the soul expresses itself through the corporeality of the body. The exact meaning of the work is unknown, but its title appears to refer to the concept of the soul being clothed within the body. This theme, which relates to Christian teaching, was explored in the Inferno in The Divine Comedy, where Dante Alighieri creates an image of lost souls “put[ting] on” their “mortal bodies”. A recurrent theme in Wildt’s work, the excavation of the eyes and mouth reduce the face itself to a mask behind which the anguished soul can be seen. Wildt was deeply inspired by the theatre masks and oscilla of classical antiquity, but L’anima e la sua Veste, with its drooping eyes and downturned mouth, is thought to relate to the expressive faces of traditional Japanese character masks (Viraben, op. cit., p. 142). The same approach was used to great effect in Wildt’s haunting representation of Santa Lucia, whose empty sockets serve as a reminder of the terrible suffering she endured.
Adolfo Wildt, Vir Temporis Acti (Ancient Man) (1911) Photograph: © Galleria D’Arte Moderna
A recurring theme in his work, Wildt had explored the subject of the soul several years prior to his conceiving L’Anima e la sua veste, when he created its progenitor, the Janus-like Carattere fiero - Anima gentile (The Proud Face of a Gentle Soul) (1912). The duality of body and soul is expressed by the frowning face of masculinity (the body), delicately connected to the gentle feminine face of a wide-eyed young woman (the soul). The phrase Carattere fiero Anima gentile describes Wildt's idea of the “quality of every good spirit”, and in this work, Wildt conveys the idea of a gentle inner being, masked by a hard exterior. An image altogether more hopeful than that seen elsewhere in Wildt’s oeuvre.
Through a purist simplification of composition, works such as Carattere fiero - Anima gentile and L’anima e la sua Veste, paved the way to modernist sculpture. Yet, like any member of the artistic avant-garde, Wildt learnt from the masters of previous centuries, and in particular, the ancient nudes lining the halls of the Brera Academy. The pose, truncation and rippling surfaces of of Vir Temporis Acti (Ancient Man), for example, are taken from the Belvedere Torso.
Adolfo Wildt, Carattere fiero - Anima gentile (1912) Photograph: © Galleria D’Arte Moderna
Considered troubled and eccentric by contemporaries, one can’t help but be moved by the remarkable sensibility of Wildt’s work. The Italian writer Ugo Ojetti describing him as the ideal interpreter of his “tired, nervous, credulous and curious era”.