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The work in the GAM gives an extremely modern image of the German musician
thanks to Grandi’s typical sculptural technique and a revolutionary iconography.
In the chalk, Grandi intends to give back to the sculpture some formal prerogatives of the painting
making it the highest expression of feeling, in contrast to the line of the academic sculpture.
The work follows the artist’s first experiments, as The Pageboy of Lara, inspired by a Byron’s poem.
The sculpture caused concern and sarcasm in the public and in the critic of that time,
because of his unconventional style.
The Young Beethoven was committed in 1874 by the musician Benedetto Junk.
With his wife, Teresa Garbagnati, he opened the door of Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda in Milan to the artists
creating one of the most famous intellectual circle of that period.
Junk committed to Grandi also a chimney and its own decoration
probably the original destination of the work, as suggested by the frontal and raised point of view.
The musician's inspired look and his hand,
that unfortunately misses in the work of the GAM,
are the true focus of the work, a celebration of the artistic genius.
In Cletto Arrighi’s definition, the Scapigliatura is identified with a class of individuals
"reservoir of disorder, the spirit of independence and opposition to the established order"
a trend that was expanding to all fields of making art like painting
- here exemplified by the works of Cremona, Ranzoni, Gola and first-Previati -
but also to literature, theater and music.
A group of artists and writers that escapes from the rigid formulas of the academy
and began to gather in bars and taverns in the Milan of the late nineteenth century
to lay the foundations of a new art.
Also in music, the Scapigliatura tried to renovate the expression of sound
and to reform the italian melodramma
with the work of its leading figure, Arrigo Boito.
In 1861 Boito, with his school mate Franco Faccio, travelled to Paris
where he met the more famous Verdi and Rossini and, most of all,
the father of modern poetry, Charles Baudelaire.
Boito discussed with the french writer about the naturalistic and simbolistic poetry
and, most important, about the new star of music, Richard Wagner
he understood that the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk could be a new model for the future music.
After his european experience, Boito developped the idea
to combine the word the image and the sound in a unique masterpiece:
an example is the “Dance of Colours”
suggested to his friend Bottesini for the libretto of the Ero and Leandro
where each musical instrument matches with a precise chromatic sensation.
Boito found the ideal theme to develop his own artistic conception
in the story of the Faust by Goethe:
with the “Ballata del Fischio” of the satanic Mefistofele
he created one of the most attractive melodramma of the XIXth century.
Also Grandi seems to be interested in this conception.
The sculptor mould the young Beethoven
as one of that rebel boy evocated in the Scapigliatura literature:
dishevelled and absorbed by the musical creation,
it becomes a symbol of the artistic Genius of the XIXth century.