Italian Manufacture Sculpture in Ceramic, 1950s

De Martino is a classical artist, known for the production of sculptures of small bronze busts, in particular (“scugnizzi”, fishermen, commoners) with realistic features. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples under the guidance of Stanislao Nome, Gioacchino Toma, and Achille D ’Orsi, from whom he learned the ability to portray the most realistic details using them on very young subjects. Very young he moved to Paris where he performed small sculptural groups, exhibiting frequently at the "Paris Salon" where he won the prize of the Louvre Museum for the bronze work Le Pêcheur de criquets (The Fisher of locusts, Naples, private collection). Returning to Naples, he returned to a socialist realism and produced sculptures depicting characteristic Neapolitan types, especially urchins, “street urchins”, little boys and young fishermen. From 1916-1931 he was master of the sculptor Angelo Frattini. Later the dominant theme of his production was childhood, in particular thoughtful, sad, gaunt children were represented in his works, on whose faces the signs of abandonment and suffering emerged. De Martino became known with the nickname of “The sculptor of children”.

Stylized cat sculpture in polychrome ceramic firm. San Polo Venezia.

Ceramic sculpture by Umberto Ghersi, 1960. Signed. Biography: Son of the ceramist Angelo and descendant of a family of Albisola majolica makers Umberto Ghersi, born in 1913 in Albis...

Midcentury Italian sculpture Otello Rosa for San Polo Venezia, horse.