Affortunato Gory

AFFORTUNATO GORY (Italy, active between 1895 - 1925).
"Nude Ballerina", ca. 1930.
Gilded bronze.
Ivory ball.
Onyx pedestal.
Signed on one foot.
Measurements: 41 x 23 x 9 cm.

Sculpture in gilded bronze, period and Art Deco style, representing a dancer captured in the momentary gesture with which probably culminates her performance, posing one knee on the floor and leaning her torso and head, thus emphasizing the curves of her naked body, of flexible beautifully turned limbs. She holds an ivory ball in her raised arm. She wears a tiara that gathers her anarchic hair.

Affortunato Gory developed his training with the master Augusto Rovalta, and after finishing his studies he settled in France, where he developed most of his career. He participated in the Salon des Artistes Français on several occasions between 1902 and 1923. He made his sculptures in the Art Nouveau style, often in bronze, but also chryselephantine, with ivory or white marble flesh tones. He was especially brilliant in the realization of female figures, represented as ladies, dancers, oriental or medieval princesses or classical figures, although he also excelled in his busts of young people and children. Today Gory is represented in museums dedicated to Art Nouveau such as the Casa Lis, as well as in private collections around the world.
Fritz Kochendörfer studied sculpture at the Munich Academy of Art. Thereafter, he worked mainly with marble in Rome and Florence. When he returned to Germany, he entered the service of Kunstanstalt Schumacher & Co. in Osterode am Harz, where he devoted himself to the production of artificial marble figurines, called "Marmalith", where he achieved great success. Later he set up his own workshops with products similar to those of Schumacher & Co. At times, the company employed more than 100 people with the production of small marble sculptures and objects in stone and terracotta.