Umberto Biagini

UMBERTO BIAGINI (Italy, XIX - XX).
"Allegory of Science", ca. 1900.
Sculpture in white Carrara marble.
Signed and located: U. BIAGINI / FIRENZE.
Measurements: 48 x 95,5 x 13 cm.

Sculpture representing the allegory of Science personified by a woman on a tripartite plinth flanked by two lions, while holding a book in her left hand and resting her right hand on the terrestrial orb.

It is a work of neoclassical essence with certain historicist dyes, as could be the trifoliated re-sinking of the plinth, which would frame it in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The model of representation of the allegory is not new, since it recalls the homonymous Roman work of the Tiber River of the first century A.D.; on the other hand, the lions, in their condition of beasts, provide an image of submission to human reason, represented by the book, in its role of transmitter of knowledge to the coming generations that inhabit the aforementioned orb.

As for the sculptor's skill, it is worth noting the satisfactory execution of the technique of wet cloths on the torso of the lying woman, as the cloth chiseled into the marble seems to adopt the characteristics of muslin to embrace the skin and, without getting lost in the transparency, let us intuit its presence.