Project Description
Cesare Biscarra (Turin 1886 – 1943), Little nude
Polymaterial sculpture, composed of a marble throne and a bronze female figure, 72 cm tall and 32 cm wide signed (CBiscarra) on the right base.
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Both the father and the grandfather Giovanni Battista (1790-1851) were known painters. Pupil of the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in the Sculpture courses of Odoardo Tabacchi and Giulio Monteverde, he was present at the exhibitions of the Circolo degli Artisti of the city since 1885 and of the Society promoting Fine Arts since 1891, obtaining a remarkable success with the “Prima midaja”, favorably commented by Leonardo Bistolfi, of whom he attended the atelier between 1899 and 1900. It is precisely in this last year that we have the very first attestation of a” Nudino” by Biscarra: at the exhibition of the Circolo degli Artisti, in fact, he presents «a nudino modeled with diligent care» in terracotta entitled Diana. It is not possible, due to the lack of precise descriptions, to say whether it is a model for the marble kept at the Civic Museum of Cuneo, nor, in effect, the iconography would seem to refer to a Diana, but it is an important exhibition occurrence because it allows us to trace what seems to be the start of the reflection on the theme of the female nude culminating, precisely, in the Cuneo Nudino, in the famous Medina and in the work presented here.
The work is in fact built on the development of an ascending motif: from the basement, defined by the solid square volume decorated on the sides with a pair of winged monstrous creatures reminiscent of the Assyrian lamassu, the woman’s body rises almost as if to continue it, until the summit pyramidal of the hand that lets loose hair fall limply. The opposing arms and legs, the curvilinear and fast line that describes the hourglass figure, the lengthening of the pose, suggested by the hands and the position of the feet, contribute to the definition of a precious document of the figurative culture of the beginning of the century. Evidence of undoubted formal solidity that mark, perhaps, one of the arrival points of the sculptor’s production which, in these matters, breaks free from the impasse of a too anecdotal verismo: such as “Giuanin” and “Prima Medaja” represent the masterpieces of naturalist season, so Nudino and Medina are so in the evolution towards a more modern and international taste.
