Circle of Giacomo Serpotta (Palermo, 1656 – 1732)
Heads of cherubs
(4) Marble, 28 x 26 x 10 cm
Giacomo Serpotta (born Giacomo Isidoro Nicolò Serpotta) was born in Palermo in the Kalsa district on March 10, 1656, always a privileged place for marble workshops due to its proximity to the port where precious materials arrived. Second son, after Giuseppe, of Gaspare Serpotta and Antonina Travaglia, his family had been part of the circle of artists of Baroque Palermo for generations: his father and grandfather, in fact, were active marble workers and sculptors, cited as authors of the most beautiful sculptural and pictorial works in the city. Trained together with his brother in his father's workshop, his life was spent almost entirely in the alleys of Palermo, dedicating himself totally and specializing in a technique that he brought to heights never reached again, the so-called "allustratura" (polishing). Thanks to this process, which involved the use of marble powder and egg white, his sculptures replicated the effect of controlled reflectivity and a visual compactness similar to porcelain, neutralizing the natural porosity of stucco or marble. Serpotta's work represented, in fact, the technical apex of sculpture in the panorama of European Baroque and Rococo, embracing a modular and dynamic plasticity. His artistic evolution fits into the context of Palermitan congregations and oratories, architectural spaces that he knew how to transform through a total integration between structure and plastic apparatus. The most significant public commissions, such as the Oratory of San Lorenzo (1699-1706) and the Oratory of the Rosary in Santa Cita (1710-1717), testify to a compositional maturity where sacred narrative is fragmented into perspective "little theaters". In these spaces, Serpotta applies almost architectural laws of optics and foreshortening, creating fictitious spatial depths that amplify the limited volumes of the walls. A deeper focus is deserved by the treatment of cherubs and putti, which in Serpotta's compositions never serve a purely filling function, but constitute a structural and psychological device. From an anatomical point of view, the sculptor abandons classical idealization for rigorous realism, which takes into account infantile proportions and the muscular tensions typical of spontaneous movement. From a stylistic point of view, the four heads of cherubs under examination can be placed among the works of the circle of the Palermitan master, presenting traits consistent with his production: the rounded shape of the face, the pronounced brow arches, and the cut of the eyes are, in fact, recurring elements in his works; as in Serpotta's signed works, the modeling of the hair and the rendering of the plumage tend to an almost ethereal lightness, with very deep and vibrant undercuts.
