His work was used as a reference by many Modenese artists working throughout the first half of the twentieth century.[1] Despite his long stays in Florence and Milan, Graziosi continued to actively participate in cultural events through his participation in local exhibitions and in the main artistic circles such as the Accademia del Fiasco and the Associazione degli Artisti e della Stampa in Modena.[2]
From 1892 to 1898 he completed his first artistic apprenticeship at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Modena where he attended the special course of sculpture under the guidance of Giuseppe Gibellini, inspired by Neapolitan sculpture produced by Achille D'Orsi, Filippo Cifariello and Vincenzo Gemito. Examples are works such as La cicca (Modena, private collection), the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Crespellani and The Saint John the Baptist, awarded a prize at the exhibition of the Society of Encouragement of Modena in 1897.
In 1898 he finished his last year of apprenticeship with the statue from life, Il figlio della gleba (The son of the serfs), which was presented and praised at the National Exhibition of Turin. Starting from this year Graziosi competes three times (1898, 1902-1903 and 1907) in the tests for the Competition of the National Artistic Pension in Rome, without any success.[5]
Florence
He attended the Free School of the Nude under the guidance of the sculptor Augusto Rivalta. At that time Giovanni Fattori taught painting in the women's section and his studio was likely a resort for Graziosi and his companions, among them the writer and painter Ardengo Soffici.
It was his frequenting of the Pignone Foundry in Florence that gave him the idea for the statue The Foundryman (Modena, Gipsoteca "Giuseppe Graziosi"), made in 1899 in Modena and presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 where Graziosi was awarded a bronze medal. Meanwhile, he obtained certification for the teaching of drawing in technical and normal schools.
Rome
From 1900 to 1901 he served in the military in the barracks of Traspontina in Rome, as an attache at first to the Photographic Section of Monte Mario, and then to the restoration of Castel Sant'Angelo. His friendship with the painter Ezio Castellucci. At the end of his military service in 1902, he attended the Free School of the Nude at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
Graziosi, who in 1904 had resumed lessons at the Free School of Nude, won the competition "Baruzzi" of Bologna for two editions: in 1904 with the sculpture All work and in 1908 with the painting Malocchio.
These were years of intense activity that saw him involved in the international competition for the sketches of the monument to Don Bosco to be erected in Turin (1913), in the creation of a funerary monument for the Monumental Cemetery of Rosario (Santa Fe), and in important exhibitions dedicated to graphics, among which is the exhibition of Italian etchers held in London in 1916.
In 1924 he bought a house in Liguria, in Sanremo. The variety of the Ligurian landscape inspired the artist to draw several paintings and graphics. In 1929 at the Littoriale in Bologna he inaugurated the equestrian monument to Mussolini.
Giuseppe Graziosi, Il fiume Secchia (a destra), Il fiume Panaro (a sinistra), 1936, Modena, Gipsoteca "Giuseppe Graziosi"
To the artist are dedicated important personal exhibitions: in 1918 in Florence, in Palazzo Antinori; in 1919 to the Gallery Pesaro of Milan, in 1940 to the XXII International Exposition of Venice and in 1941 to the Gallery of the Million in Milan, the first one, this, of alone designs. As a professor of sculpture teaches at the Academies of Fine Arts in Milan, Naples and Florence.
Critique
An exhibition of Graziosi's work was held in 1963 at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and an in-depth study of his oeuvre by Gabriella Guandalini was published in the first catalog (1984, recently updated) dedicated to the Gipsoteca Graziosi of the Civic Museum of Modena. Later commentary by Francesca Petrucci has clarified his position in the broader context of national and international figurative art .[6]
Gipsoteca "Giuseppe Graziosi"
The gallery of plaster casts was founded in Modena in 1984 following the donation by the heirs of a large collection of plastic, pictorial and graphic works by the artist Giuseppe Graziosi. After an initial location at the Istituto San Paolo, in 1994 the Gipsoteca was set up on the ground floor of Palazzo dei Musei.[7]
Photographic archive
The photographic archive donated by Graziosi's heirs in 1999 consists of 2144 images taken by the artist on different supports: negative and positive stereoscopic plates, negatives on glass plates and gelatin on nitrate film.[8][9]
^Francesca Piccinini, Luciano Rivi e Cristina Stefani, ed. (2011). Forme e figure. Modena e la scultura nella prima metà del '900. Modena: Francesca Piccinini, Luciano Rivi e Cristina Stefani.
Emanuela Andreoli, GRAZIOSI, Giuseppe, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 59, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2002. URL consultato il 16 dicembre 2015.
Maria Canova e Francesca Piccinini, ed. (2007). Il fondo Giuseppe Graziosi del Museo Civico d'Arte. Modena.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
"Artisti modenesi ammessi all'Esposizione nazionale d'Arte sportiva". Gazzetta dell'Emilia. No. 26 (30-31 gennaio 1936).
"Attività degli Artisti Modenesi". Gazzetta dell'Emilia. No. 30 (14- 15 febbraio 1936).
M. Canova; et al. (2003). Giuseppe Graziosi dalla fotografia al quadro. Opere 1900-1942. Vol. catalogo della mostra. Modena.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
G. Guandalini con la collaborazione di G. Martinelli Braglia, ed. (1984). La Gipsoteca Giuseppe Graziosi. Modena.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Morandi (2006). Il fondo Graziosi nell'Istituto d'Arte Venturi di Modena. Vol. I, 1. Reggio Emilia. pp. 87–95. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Cristina Stefani (2008). Francesca Piccinini e Luciano Rivi (ed.). Giuseppe Graziosi. Modena. pp. 97–121. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Giuseppe Graziosi 1879-1942. Vol. catalogo della mostra (Firenze-Milano). Firenze. 1994.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Petrucci, ed. (1995). I luoghi di Giuseppe Graziosi. Dipinti e disegni. Vol. catalogo della mostra (Vignola). Milano.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Petrucci, ed. (1996). Giuseppe Graziosi. La stagione dei campi, opere dal 1903 al 1913. Vol. catalogo della mostra (Modigliana-Tredozio). Firenze.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Graziosi a Maranello: il ritorno di un grande artista. Vol. catalogo della mostra (Maranello). Fiorano. 1997.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Petrucci, E. Vespignani, ed. (1998). Giuseppe Graziosi. Incisioni e disegni. Vol. catalogo della mostra. Firenze.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Petrucci, ed. (1998). I maestri del naturalismo europeo. Opere di Giuseppe Graziosi, Constantin Meunier, Jean Franςois Millet. Vol. catalogo della mostra (Savignano sul Panaro). Firenze.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Piccinini e L. Rivi, ed. (2001). I colori del segno. Il Disegno e le Arti a Modena tra Ottocento e Novecento. Aspetti e situazioni. Vol. catalogo della mostra. Modena.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
G. Corrado, ed. (2002). Giuseppe Graziosi 1879-1942 nelle collezioni modenesi. Vol. catalogo della mostra. Modena.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
F. Piccinini e C. Stefani, ed. (2007). Ghigno e sorriso. Caricature del Novecento a Modena. Vol. catalogo della mostra. Modena.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Luciano Rivi (2008). Francesca Piccinini e Luciano Rivi (ed.). Giuseppe Graziosi. Tra Firenze e Parigi, il "salto vitale" nei ricordi di Ardengo Soffici. Modena. pp. 102–109. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)