Carmine Tripodi – Perseus

Carmine Tripodi

(Oppido Mamertina (Reggio Calabria)1899–Rome 1970)

Perseus

Circa 1935

Boxwood, h 55.5 cm

Signed at base: “C. Tripodi”

Provenance: Rome, private collection

Regularly present at national exhibitions, at the Società degli Amatori e Cultori di Belle Arti, the Biennale Meridionale in Bari, the Mostra d’arte decorativa in Monza and the Venice Biennale, in the 1920s Carmine Tripodi was part of the Gruppo Artistico Calabrese, whose aim was to emancipate artistic regionalism of its more banally folkloristic aspects, in favour of a more profound interpretation of tradition. Both monumental sculptor and refined medallist, Tripodi often dedicated himself to sculpture in wood, a technique inherited from the centuries-old tradition of his native Oppido Mamertina, as in this sophisticated nude, intimist and dreamy, and identifiable perhaps with the wooden figure in Agricoltore (Farmer), shown in 1935 at the Mostra di disegni del Sindacato Interprovinciale Fascista Belle Arti in Rome, or Perseus, “who seems to live from fresh youth,” as cited by Enrico Aeberli in 1950 on “Il Ponte” by Piero Calamandrei.