Giovanni De Martino

Made in Naples, Italy, 1920s. This child is made in polychrome bronze with a marble base. This item might show slight traces of use since it's vintage, but it can be considered as in...

De Martino is a classical artist, known for the production of sculptures of small bronze busts, in particular (“scugnizzi”, fishermen, commoners) with realistic features. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples under the guidance of Stanislao Nome, Gioacchino Toma, and Achille D ’Orsi, from whom he learned the ability to portray the most realistic details using them on very young subjects. Very young he moved to Paris where he performed small sculptural groups, exhibiting frequently at the "Paris Salon" where he won the prize of the Louvre Museum for the bronze work Le Pêcheur de criquets (The Fisher of locusts, Naples, private collection). Returning to Naples, he returned to a socialist realism and produced sculptures depicting characteristic Neapolitan types, especially urchins, “street urchins”, little boys and young fishermen. From 1916-1931 he was master of the sculptor Angelo Frattini. Later the dominant theme of his production was childhood, in particular thoughtful, sad, gaunt children were represented in his works, on whose faces the signs of abandonment and suffering emerged. De Martino became known with the nickname of “The sculptor of children”.