Virgilio AUDAGNA (Cannes, 1903 - Turin, 1993 ou 1995)

THE SPRING AND THE SUMMER Turin, first half of the 20th century Terracotta Cracking and missing The Spring : H. 163 cm, W. 59,5 cm, D. 45 cm The Summer : H. 173 cm, W. 64 cm, D. 51 cm Signed on the side of the terrace of the Spring, on the right, in cursive characters : audagna These two monumental terracotta sculptures forming a pair are the work of Virgilio Audagna, who has represented here two life-size female nudes. One, head bent, face framed by her two braids, wears a simple cape. She walks quietly on the terrace strewn with flowers, towards a crocus that announces Spring. In counterpart, the Summer sitting on three sheaves of wheat. Her head thrown back, her wide-brimmed hat folded behind her shoulders, a light drape in her left hand, she seems to be sunbathing. Our Seasons marks the peak of the career of the artist trained at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. He exhibited for the first time in 1919, after a stay in Rome, and it was a real success. King Vittorio Emmanuele III bought his work. From the years 1920-1930, he received many public commissions, civil and religious. He became famous for his female nudes, which earned him his first personal exhibition in 1947. One thinks of the nude presented at the Esposizione della Società Promotrice delle Belle Arti, at the Museum of Modern Art in Turin in 1942 and acquired by the Province (fig. 1). This terracotta represents a woman sitting on a rock, whose general body posture and facial expression are very similar to those shown in our figures. It is also comparable to them in the drawing of the chest and abdomen. But ours are much larger.