Bust of a woman in terracotta, Italy 1938

This remarkable terracotta bust, dated 1938, is set against the fascinating backdrop of the interwar period in Italy. At a time of great political and cultural tension, when the official art commissioned by the regime aimed to be rigid, martial, and monumental, this work chooses a radically different path by subtly freeing itself. While one can detect a certain rigor in the pose and construction, the sculpture stands far from any heroism or cold idealism. What immediately strikes the viewer is its human scale and the profound intimacy it exudes. The material is laid bare: the sculptor has made the deliberate choice to leave the living clay. Refusing the academic smoothing that freezes forms, the artist leaves visible the marks of the tool and the impressions of his own thumbs in the raw material. This direct and spontaneous treatment, characteristic of hand modelling, preserves the energy of the artist's initial gesture. It gives the surface an almost pictorial quality: the vigorous relief beautifully catches the light, creating a play of changing shadows. This dynamism of the material accentuates the interiority of this woman and resonates with the entire psychology of the model. A work of great modern sensitivity, a testament to a declared artistic freedom at the end of the 1930s.