Arturo Martini

Born in Treviso in 1889, where he lived until 1920, Arturo Martini left an indelible mark on the history of 20th-century sculpture. At the Luigi Bailo Museum, which dedicated a major retrospective to him in 2023, his work is extensively represented thanks to important acquisitions and donations that have enriched the Martinian corpus in his hometown over time.
A pupil of the local sculptor Antonio Carlini, who taught him modeling techniques, the young Martini made his debut in the early 20th century at the first Trevigian Art Exhibitions and the group shows of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice.
A long stay in Munich in 1909 encouraged him to develop original plaster models under the influence of Jugendstil (such as the Vase Fiaba), which he created for the Gregorj kiln. He absorbed the vibrant Venetian artistic scene and exhibited on several occasions at Ca’ Pesaro, experimenting with graphic (including cheramographies) and sculptural techniques; he became friends with Gino Rossi, with whom he traveled to Paris and shared a desire to renew artistic languages. Fanciulla piena d’amore (Young Girl Full of Love) and Portrait of Omero Soppelsa (of which the Museum preserves the plasters), exhibited amid controversy at the 1913 group show, are evidence of his artistic exploration, which at the time leaned toward Futurist solutions.
In 1918, he published in Faenza the wordless xylographic book Contemplazioni (Contemplations), which still raises questions among scholars. He anticipated the recovery of form during the “return to order” years, creating figures with simplified, almost geometric volumes, immersed in metaphysical atmospheres.
After moving to Vado Ligure, he joined the Valori Plastici circle and, in Milan, frequented Margherita Sarfatti’s salon and the Novecento group.
In the second half of the 1920s, his study of ancient Roman and Etruscan models, examined during frequent stays in the capital, led to a turning point: with the nude of La Pisana (the bronze of which is displayed here), the artist achieved a novel formal synthesis between the archaic and the modern.
Thanks to access to the ILVA kiln in Vado Ligure, he was able to produce an extraordinary series of large, one-of-a-kind terracottas (such as La Venere dei porti / The Venus of the Ports), which he exhibited at the 1931 Rome Quadrennial, earning first prize for sculpture.
In the 1930s, his terracottas received critical acclaim, along with significant public commissions for monumental works, such as the relief La Giustizia corporativa (Corporate Justice) for the Palace of Justice in Milan.
He was appointed to the chair of sculpture at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, becoming its director in 1944. During these years, he experienced a period of deep reflection: for months, he discussed with his friend Gino Scarpa the limits of figurative sculpture and the development of plastic form in relation to space, issues summarized in Scultura lingua morta (Sculpture Dead Language, 1945) and in the Colloqui (Dialogues), published posthumously. This led him to invert the relationship between solid and void in the celebrated Atmosfera di una testa (Atmosphere of a Head).
Removed from the Academy after the war, he moved to the Bergamo area; in 1946, one year before his sudden death, he created Palinuro in Carrara marble, the first monument to the Resistance, placed at Palazzo Bo in Padua.