Male Warrior Art Deco Sculpture by Cipriani

This is a masterful piece of art deco sculpture by Ugo Cipriani, an artist well known for his deco themes, French style expressive faces and  a sense of movement. This full weight bronze has a beautiful patina. A hint of aqua tone brings out the detail in the casting and suggests the water beneath the raft on which the subject sits.

The chiseled features, the perfect form of the man portrayed are exceptional. The spear is a popular symbol in sculpures of the era and in this piece the subject is really using it with a sense of purpose.

Cipriani was born into a family of sculptors in Italy. He worked in marble, alabaster, terracotta and bronze. He lived from 1897 until 1960, The first half of his life in Otrarno and Firenze until he emigrated to France to escape the Fascism of Mussolini.  It has been more recently revealed that he is actually the artist behind the sculptures of Menneville… and in fact that is one of the names he used to sign his pieces. “Menneville” is the name attached to some of Cipriani’s finest work, often depicting beautiful Art Deo era women.

It was common for artists of the period between the two world wars to use several names with which to sign their work. But just as the sculptor  Le Faguays also used “Guerbe” and “Fayral”, and Erte  was the name adopted by Russian artist Romain de Tirtoff, Cipriani is also “Menneville”.

This is not just an affectation of an eccentric artist, but also a means of survival in a time when there was tremendous persecution and the threat of Nazism and Facism. To suddenly have a “French” name was a bit of protection for an artist.