New light on a master sculptor like Vincenzo Vela

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November 4th, 2024
from 9:00 to 12:30

Online event

The project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation ‘The sculptor’s mark: plaster models in the legacy of Vincenzo Vela’, directed by Alberto Felici of the SUPSI Institute of Materials and Constructions, comes to an end. It is now time for the presentation of the results to the public.

Photo: Vincenzo Vela. 1856. The guardian angel. Tito Pallestrini’s funeral monument. Plaster. Museo Vincenzo Vela. Photo: E. Manship

 

The poetry of Vincenzo Vela’s works also transpires from the plasters, clays, waxes and raw earths that the sculptor kept in his workshop all his life. It is precisely these materials, moulded, that were the source of the final sculptures.

The research project The sculptor’s mark: plaster models in the legacy of Vincenzo Vela, launched at the end of 2020, has made it possible to study the artist’s creative process thanks to an interdisciplinary team of researchers of the Institute of Materials and Constructions (SUPSI-Department of environment constructions and design) – Alberto Felici, Elisabeth Manship, Giovanni Nicoli, Pierre Jaccard with the collaboration of colleagues Francesca Piqué, Giacinta Jean, Patrizia Moretti, Giovanni Cavallo e Marta Caroselli – together with the Museo Vincenzo Vela and the City of Lugano.

‘The model is almost like a fossil amber where the master’s imprints and the tools with which he worked the material have crystallised,’ emphasises Alberto Felici: ‘It allows us to understand how he transferred the material into the noblest material, which was normally marble’.

A project, therefore, that provided an opportunity to get closer to the sculptor’s way of working, to his ‘doing’.

On the occasion of two study days (reserved for the scholars involved in sharing historical, artistic, archival, technical and scientific knowledge), the entire morning of Monday 4 November 2024 (9:00–12:30) will be specifically dedicated to the presentation of the results to the public, who will be able to follow the interventions (in Italian) in streaming by connecting to this link (Zoom).

The morning’s welcome will be brought by Luigi Di Corato, Director of the Cultural Division of the City of Lugano, and Nicla Borioli Pozzorini, Head of Formazione di base at the SUPSI Department of environment constructions and design.

 

Online meeting

9:00    
Saluti di benvenuto. Vincenzo Vela a Lugano (Luigi Di Corato e Nicla Borioli Pozzorini)

9:15    
Presentazione del progetto The sculptor’s mark (Alberto Felici)
 
9:20    
The sculptor’s mark: plaster models in the legacy of Vincenzo Vela (risultati e riflessioni)
Modera Giacinta Jean 
 
  • Introduzione. Vincenzo Vela, l’uomo e l’artista (Gianna A. Mina) 
  • Excursus storico e tecnico dell’uso del modello (Alberto Felici) 
  • Osservare e documentare i modelli in gesso (Elisabeth Manship) 
  • La campagna scientifica, la caratterizzazione dei materiali costitutivi (Francesca Piqué) 

10:30
Pausa

10:50  
  • Lo studio dei modelli con indagini radiografiche (Pierre Jaccard) 
  • L’uso delle scansioni digitali 3D (Alberto Felici) 
  • Alcune riflessioni sul metodo di lavoro di Vincenzo Vela secondo le fonti (Elisabeth Manship)
  • Lo studio delle gipsoteche nel progetto Vela (Elisabeth Manship e Giovanni Nicoli) 
  • Una sintesi sul ruolo del modello per Vincenzo Vela (Alberto Felici) 

12:10 
Discussione
 

SUPSI Image Focus

Caption test
It is right at the heart of a sculptor’s work: it is the faithful reproduction of the clay model, it shows the signs of the workings (from the shaping technique to the surface finish such as measuring points) and is the basis for translation into more noble materials such as stone or marble or bronze. Usually, its realisation requires not only the intervention of the individual artist, but the involvement of the entire workshop and, therefore, represents the fruit of the whole team and in particular of the moulder, whose role has too often been underestimated. This is why it is important to illustrate in detail the techniques, materials and procedures used in this particular operation. 

SUPSI Image Focus

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