Head of a boy

The difference between a beautiful work of art and a magnificent one is that the first captures the eye, but the second steals the soul; this is what happens when admiring this head of a boy in polished bronze. Francesco Messina (Linguaglossa, 1900 – Milan, 1995) is considered one of the greatest Italian sculptors of the twentieth century. He arrived in Genoa as an infant and remained there until 1932; his family was part of that "mass of migration" that, between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, dreamed of leaving their homeland for a better life full of hopes and opportunities. America. This work fits into Messina's typical production of the so-called "portraits," that is, in the realistic representation of human faces (adults and teenagers, usually attributable to a character); the sculptor managed to shape the form expressing, in addition to the pure physiognomy, also the character of the effigy. The head, with a short neck appendage, belongs to the Genoese period (it is signed and dated 1929). We do not know the name of the boy portrayed, perhaps one of the many "immigrants" or inhabitants who crowded the Genoese alleys, or perhaps not, but we can perceive his swagger in the proud attitude, in that way of turning his imperturbable gaze with challenge to the future that awaits him. A unique work of great charm and quality. Dimensions: height 30 cm