Lot 38. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Aquiles (David), 1946. Estimation 600,000 — 800,000 GBP (759,900 - 1,013,200 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's.

incised with the artist's signature on the base, patinated gesso, 163 by 48 by 45 cm. 64 3/8 by 18 7/8 by 17 3/4 in. Executed in 1946, this work is the unique original gesso sculpture for a bronze edition. 

This work is accompanied by a photo certificate issued by the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan. 

Bibliography: Julio Rinaldini, ‘Lucio Fontana o la vision inflamada y dinamica del objeto’, Cabalgata, No. 16, Buenos Aires, February 1948, n.p., illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Anon., ‘L’ambiente spaziale di Lucio Fontana’, San Remo, July - August 1949, n.p., illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures et Environments Spatiaux, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 20, no. 46 SC 1, illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Ethel Martínez Sobrado, ‘Fontana’, Pintores Argentinos del Siglo XX, No. 79, Buenos Aires 1981, n.p., illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Generale, Vol. I, Milan 1986, p. 85, no. 46 SC 1, illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Enrico Crispolti, Centenario di Lucio Fontana, Milan 1999, p. 35, illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. I, Milan 2006, p. 203, no. 46 SC1 (text); and illustrated (bronze edition, no. unknown)

Notes: “There is nothing about these sculptures to suggest the modern world. They are made to appear as old as the clay itself. At the same time they are firmly attached to the history of sculpture, attached by humour, irony and even parody. […] Some of the sculptures are inspired by an outlandish baroque fantasy.”  Sarah Whitfield, Lucio Fontana, London 1999, p. 25.

Whilst Lucio Fontana is today world renowned for his iconic piercing of the canvas, his artistic genesis is rooted firmly in the medium of sculpture, and it is undeniable that this background proved paramount in articulating his conceptual understanding of space. Aquiles (David) is a unique work from this oeuvre, one of his largest sculptures ever created, and a watershed moment between his figurative and abstract styles. It was also created during a pivotal year for the artist during which he created his first Spatialist manifesto.

The present work has been known as both Aquiles (Achilles in Spanish) and David over the years. It is a near life-size depiction of a young nude male, posed in a delicate contraposto. His hands are clasped in front of him and, head cocked to one side, his hair billows upwards and back, as if dramatically flowing in the wind. In the bronze cast taken from this patinated gesso original, the figure clutches a spear which points sharply down. Thus, in pose, subject, and style, this work seems to look back on Fontana's Neo-Classical beginnings as an artist.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, 1501-04. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence. Image: © Bridgeman Images

In the 1930s, the artist had developed a propensity for depicting the athletic form, translated into a classical context. Aquilesseems entirely reminiscent of Fontana's 1932 Campione Olimponico (Atleta Riposa), which is now in the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna. It is a full size sculpture of Cirro Verrati, the Italian fencing champion, and shares with the present work a focus on the male nude form, a titular reference to classical influence, a considered academic pose, and an idealised, almost heroic sense of form. We might also look to Fontana's 1934 sculpture, Il Fiocinatore (The Harpoonist), now owned by the University of Parma. This work is similarly golden in hue to the present sculpture, equally Hellenic in form and mood, and features a comparable sense of spear-wielding downward thrust.

However, Aquiles also looks forward, and can be viewed as a direct precursor to Fontana’s celebrated Barocchi sculptures. From the year of the present work’s production onwards, Fontana believed the sculptors of the Baroque to be the most adept at activating space and suggesting movement in the entirety of the history of art. In his subsequent Barocchi series, he made concerted attempts to emulate their distinctive sense of dynamism. As such, it is perhaps no surprise that the present work seems redolent of artists such as Gianlorenzo Bernini. We might observe its lithe idealised sense of form, or it’s composition – captured as if a single moment, frozen in time; we might even look to the flowing hair, which appears to almost echo billowing Baroque drapery. In contemporaneous influence, the present sculpture seems equitable with Alberto Giacometti's works of the same period: similarly spectral in life-size elongation, similarly aesthetically impactful, and similarly heavily modelled. It also appears to presage the expressively kneaded forms of Willem de Kooning's iconic suite of figurative bronzes from the 1970s.

Alberto Giacometti, L’homme qui marche I, 1960. Private Collection. Artwork: © The Estate of Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Giacometti, Paris and ADAGP, Paris), licensed in the UK by ACS and DACS, London 2015 / Bridgeman Images