Bauer/Bocciardo Memorial, 1902-1904
Leonardo Bistolfi was a sculptor, painter and writer, and the leading Symbolist and Liberty Style (Italian Art Nouveau) sculptor in Italy. Restored in 2014.
The artist Bistolfi is represented in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, and at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Turin. The Gipsoteca “Leonardo Bistolfi” in Casale Monferrato, Italy has more than 170 of his works on display.
Hermann Bauer, was born in Genoa to a Swiss family, was in the coal business and was a noted soccer player and a founder of the Italian Federation of Football. His son in law, Signore Bocciardo, was in the leather business. He studied in the U.K. and brought many modern innovations and machinery to Genoa for the first time, introducing the English industrial methods.
This tomb, called The Resurrection, was dedicated to Bauer’s daughter, Bocciardo’s wife, Elena Bauer. It is a pivotal early example of the new Art Nouveau aesthetic of funeral art, of which Bistolfi was the leading proponent. The plaster model for this work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1905.
Thanks to our sponsorship, this sculpture has received careful cleaning to protect the marble from deterioration caused by the attack of pollution and organic growths.