Romano Romanelli (14 May 1882 – 25 September 1968) was an Italian artist, writer, and naval officer, known for his sculptures and his medals.
Romanelli was born in Florence, the son of sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. Romano's works occupy an important place in the Avant-Garde movement and form part of the ongoing artistic legacy of the Romanelli dynasty. He is buried in the Soffiano cemetery in Florence.
Personal life
Florentine by descent on his mother's side, a descendant of Francesco Ferrucci, the famous Florentine Military Commissioner of the Medici family and a shipowner, and on his father's side, the son and grandson of renowned sculptors. His grandfather Pasquale Romanelli had been a collaborator of Lorenzo Bartolini, his father was the acclaimed and talented Raffaello Romanelli. He was a decorated Naval officer in the Italian Navy.
As a commanding officer in Gibraltar, Romano was to meet Dorothea Hayter, and she would become his wife in 1925. She was the daughter of Rev. William Thomas Baring Hayter. They had three children – a son, Raffaello Romanelli (b. 1926), and two daughters, Costanza (b.1928, d.2022) married to Bettino, 31st Baron Ricasoli (b.1922, d.2009) and Ilaria (b.1931, d.2024) married to Arnaud Faure (b.1930 – d.2015).
He was also a wine producer creating at the turn of the 20th century the Tenuta di Riseccoli winery in Greve in Chianti. He also held farms in Somalia, on the Jubba River, where he had plantations of banana trees and grapefruits. In 1965, his wife, whilst driving to the local hospital she had created, was sadly murdered by natives.
In 2012, his daughters Costanza and Ilaria donated their collection of around two thousand drawings by their father to the Florentine Galleria d’Arte Moderna housed in the Palazzo Pitti.
Naval service
As a boy under the guidance of his father, Romano showed an aptitude for sculpting, and it seemed that he would follow the family tradition of sculpture. But Romano first found a career in the Italian Navy.
After studying mathematics at Pisa University, Romano attended the Italian Naval Academy at Livorno. As a cadet and junior officer in the Italian Navy, he made five voyages, visiting the Mediterranean, North America, and Europe, including the Azores and Madeira. He served for three years in the Far East, including China, Japan and Siberia, the Dutch and British East Indies, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. He left service in 1910 for medical reasons and began to work as a sculptor. Recalled into the Navy for the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–12, he served as a navigator in an armed cruiser patrolling in the area between Corsica and Palermo, Sicily. Recalled once again in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed officer in command of the Southern Adriatic and Ionian Sea. He subsequently commanded an auxiliary cruiser, and in 1916–1919, he was based in Gibraltar, where he was the Italian naval officer assigned to co-operate with other allied navies protecting merchant vessels from U-boat attacks during their passage between the Straits of Gibraltar and the Italian coast. He was decorated and became an honorary member of the British Legion. His time in service and voyages were to have a lasting influence on his artwork: in 1940 he wrote "Romanticismo Velico" (Vallecchi, Firenze, 1940), a memory of his naval life from childhood to naval service in Africa and the Far East."Scrittori Marinari: Romano Romanelli," Corriere Padano, 7 January 1942
First works During his leaves from naval service, Romano found time to develop his sculpting skills. His personal style continued to evolve through his lifetime as he sought to master his craft. In 1905 and 1906, he made two portraits, including one of his brother Renzo. In 1906, Romano started work on his bronze monument, Hercules strangling with the Nemean lion, a piece was presented at the Biennale at Venice in 1910, then also at the Universal Exhibition in Rome in 1911. In 1930, a statue dedicated to the Patriot Manin was removed from Piazza Ognissanti in Florence, and in its place, by 1937, this work was set in place as a gift to the city of Florence in 1935 by Angelo Orvieto. The highly defined muscular tension and precarious equilibrium between the two antagonists recalls the Hellenistic sculpture: I lottatori (The Wrestlers) found at the Uffizi; however, by the 1930s, the sculptures would have been popular with the fascist authorities, since Mussolini self-identified with Hercules.Editorial Notebook: The Sawdust Caesar, by Karl Meyer (April 16, 1994) New York Times notes that Mussolini ... once announced plans for a "Foro Mussolini," bigger than St. Peter's and the Colosseum, to be crowned with a huge bronze of Hercules, his arm raised in a Fascist salute, his face modeled on the Duce's. In addition in various medallions, the Duce utilized the trope of Hercules in the Lion Skin. The sculpture alluded to Mussolini's Italy subjugation and conquest of African countries and lands.
Schooling
Romano was traditionally schooled at his father's studio, learning the techniques of modelling clay. Whilst gaining a grounding in the technical elements of sculpting from his father, Romano's style was different from the outset. The development of his own personal style was aided by frequenting the studio of other sculptors, initially Giussepe Renda from Naples and later Domenico Trentacoste. At Trentacoste's studio, he also came into contact with Maffio Maffii. Another key influence in the formation of his own unique style was Vincenzo Gemito, whose studio in Naples he visited several times. He inspired in him a love for nature seen through the ideal image created by the Greek masters of the Hellenistic period. During his time in the navy, one particular trip would take him to the Greek remains of the Valle dei Tempi in Agrigento, Sicily, which he would draw upon as inspiration in his later work. While Romano would never part ways with this Classical grounding, he would go on to achieve a commendable feat, that of creating sculpture that was on the one hand paying homage to Antiquity and on the other toying with newfound concepts of Artistic Modernity. This juxtaposition is essentially the reason why Romano's sculpture is perceived to be unique.
A year in Paris It was the year 1910–11 that would point him in this direction. Romano entered Paris when the French Avant-Garde movement was in prominence, and therefore became immersed in an environment in which contemporary visions of art were blooming. Romano also frequented the Louvre, where he drew inspiration from French Classicism. He studied in various studios, notably that of Auguste Rodin, where he was influenced by the master himself and fellow sculptors Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Maillol. Romano befriended the painter Maurice Denis, whose work became a point of reference. Denis would later, along with the sculptor Paul Maximilien Landowski, nominate Romano to become a member of the prestigious "Institut de France" and the "Académie des Beaux-Arts". Romano kept company with many prominent figures of the artistic community as well as being exposed to great works of art, including Gauguin’s exotic Tahitian beauties. The oriental aspects of Gauguin’s work as well as Romano’s military voyages to China are deemed responsible for the synthetic style seen in Romano’s figure formation. Romano’s most notable work to emerge from this time was Il Risveglio di Brunilde – Brunhild’s Awakening in 1913, inspired by Richard Wagner’s Opera "Siegfried" which was being performed in Paris at the time. The American dancer Isadora Duncan was the lead role, and she posed for Romano initially in Paris and later at Viareggio. Romano was fascinated with the unique bodily form displayed in Duncan’s dancing; the freedom of her movement was captivating for the artistic eye.
Post First World War
Following the First World War, Romano dedicated himself wholeheartedly to a career in sculpture. Romano’s style underwent a transformative period as the themes of his work became increasingly influenced by the setting in which he found himself. Eva – Eve (1918), with her soft lines, is still reminiscent of Rodin. However, La Signora Giglioli – Mrs. Giglioli (1922) looks more to the Italian Avant-Garde movement, as does Leda con il Cigno – Leda and the Swan (1923). Mario Tinti suggested that Romano's military duties significantly impacted his style. He writes that Romano "began to strip his art of every psychological, dynamic, and colourist influence that he had unconsciously derived from Rodin – all his efforts from now on were directed towards making his art more severe, and more religious, more architectural and absolute – in a word, more 'Italian' ". The validity of these words lies in the abundance of Romano's works linked to Italian Nationalism and Classicism, but his work continued to display traces of his pre-war influences. The first of many large commissions to come his way was the Equestrian statue of General Botha for his Memorial (1928), which stands outside the parliament in Cape Town, originally a commission to his father Raffaello Romanelli which he took over upon his death. After World War II, Romano's links with South Africa also gave his workshop a role in the creation of the historical friezes for the Voortrekker Monument in South Africa. The design was created by four South African sculptors, Hennie Potgieter, Laurika Postma, Frikkie Kruger and Peter Kirchhoff, who spent five years creating plaster panels. These panels were sent to Florence, where Romanelli had a large studio with machinery and technical equipment. Romano directed 50 chisellers replicating the plaster designs in Quercetta marble.
The Two Boxers
Pugile in Combattimento – The Fighting Boxer (1926), bought by Minister Augusto Turati for the Foro Italico stadium in Rome and shown at the "Mostra del Novecento" in 1929, bears witness to Romano's style of the post-war period. From the plaster version preserved at Galleria Romanelli, the masculine lines, accompanied by finer details, give the sculpture its strong impact. The socks, the livery, the gloves and the concentration on the facial expression and the action stance of the athlete all reveal a style which leans towards the pursuit of verisimilitude. Following on from this theme is the Il Pugile Ferito – Wounded Boxer (1929–1931), inspired by the beautiful Hellenistic bronze Il Pugilatore in Riposo housed at the National Museum, Rome (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme), is distinctive of Romano's style of this period. The similarity can be seen particularly in the positioning of the hands and the head turned towards the right. There are still undercurrents of Rodin, who remained a constant source of inspiration, as the rough surface of the bronze and the deep shadows highlighting the volumes and inspiration from the sober and introverted sculpture of Charles Despiau, author of a bronze "l'Atlète"L. Deshairs, Despiau, Arts et Décoration, XXVII April 1923, pp.97–108
Work under Fascism