Sculpture By Eduardo Rossi (naples 1867 – 1926), “ballerina”

Eduardo Rossi (Naples 1867 – 1926), “Ballerina”, 2nd decade of the 20th century.

Ivory, patinated bronze, green onyx, cm. 43 x 24

Signed “Rossi 8260” on the statue.

The Liberty-style statuette depicts a ballerina. The girl is wearing a precious ballet costume: on her head she wears a golden cap decorated with buttons and four enameled peacock feathers; an ornamental motif that recalls the bird’s plumage is also reused for the hem of the dress she is wearing. Rossi’s mastery emerges when we focus on the girl’s face: she bows, raises her gaze and smiles with pleased delight at the viewer.

BIOGRAPHY

Eduardo Rossi was born in Naples in 1867. Enrolled at the Neapolitan Academy of Fine Arts, he became a student of the realist sculptor Achille d’Orsi. In 1895 he made his debut at the First International Art Exhibition in Venice, with the sculpture Octopus Fisherman; the following year he participated in the Exhibition of Fine Arts in Florence with the bust of Forosetta, now preserved at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. In 1898 he presented a bust of the Virgin at “L’arte all’Esposizione” in Turin. In the following years he was present in the registers of various Italian exhibitions, and then participated in 1910 at the Brussels Exhibition, where he obtained a Bronze Medal for the Sculpture category.