La corte d’onore The Court of Honour

細節

FAUSTO MELOTTI (1901-1989)
La corte d’onore
The Court of Honour
brass
37.3/8 x 26¾ x 15¾in. (95 x 68 x 40cm.)
Executed in 1972

This work is registered in the Archivio Fausto Melotti, Milan, under no. 72 004 So.

來源

Marta Melotti Collection, Milan.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

出版

L. Lambertini, “Melotti fra Musica e Scultura”, in Il Giornale Nuovo, 5 March 1976 (illustrated, unpaged).
“Le Grandi Sculture di Melotti”, in Avvenire, 30 June 1991 (illustrated, unpaged).
Fausto Melotti. Sequenze d’amore, exh. cat., Bollate, Villa Arconati, 1991, no. 15 (illustrated, p. 136).
G. Celant, Melotti Catalogo Generale Sculture 1929-1972, vol. 1, Milan 1994, no. 1972 8 (illustrated, p. 310).

展覽

Zurich, Marlborough Gallery, Fausto Melotti, 1973, no. 43 (illustrated, unpaged). This exhibition travelled to Rome, Marlborough Gallery.
Parma, Università di Parma, Sala delle Scuderie in Pilotta, Fausto Melotti, 1976, no. 213 (illustrated, p. 196).
Genoa, Galleria Rotta, Fausto Melotti, 1976.
Parma, Galleria d’Arte Niccoli, Fausto Melotti, 1978.
Turin, Galleria Eva Menzio, Balla Severini Soldati Melotti Burri Fontana Campigli Rosai Rho De Pisis Morandi De Chirico, 1982.
São Paolo, Artisti Italiani nella XVa Biennale di San Paolo, 1979, no. 3 (illustrated, p. 34).
Frankfurt, Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Fausto Melotti. Metallplastiken, Bilder, 1985 (illustrated, p. 7).
Matera, Chiese rupestri Madonna delle Virtù e San Nicola dei Greci, Palazzo Lanfranchi, Melotti, 1987, no. 40.

注意事項

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

榮譽呈獻

Alessandro Diotallevi

adiotallevi@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2954

拍品專文

In this case, the "primacy" is mine: I won the "primacy of possession" almost immediately. La Corte d'onore (Court of Honour) is a work constructed on two levels, which is not often found in Melotti (although it does occur in other works). Virtuosity has burst forth, transforming itself into magic. Melotti solicits the imagination of the viewer, who only has to "tune in": depicted is a public ceremony, with the dignitaries lined up on the basis of their respective hierarchy: in the foreground, those of highest status, the others behind, in accordance with a pre-established order. The band begins to play (what would a ceremony be without a band?), the notes soar up to the sky, forming the "cloud" draped above the first level, and then come back down again, fainter, like the thin threads of brass (the pins) that descend from the drapery towards the dignitaries placed on the second level. A complex work, yet simple nevertheless, in which you never tire of gazing at the detail. To sum it up in a single word: magic. And who can tire of magic?
The work is "enhanced" by a very special certificate from the Archive: it was done on the back of a beautiful photo (30.8 x 39.5 cm) by the old Studio Gris in Milan. The photo is given in homage by Marta Melotti, to our passion and devotion to the great master, her father. We have always been tempted to have the photo framed, to display it beside the sculpture: we have not done so in order to preserve as best we can the condition of the certificate.