Italian sculptor working almost exclusively in marble. A virtuoso technician, he produced mostly genre subjects, often centering on mildly erotic representations of young women, in a poeticizing late neoclassical style tempered by a moderate degree of verismo. He was born in Pavia, Lombardy, and trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan under Abbondio Sangiorgio. In 1866, at the age of 17, he exhibited his first major work, Vendemmiatore (‘Grape Harvester’), which was purchased by the Società di Belle Arti and installed in the Palazzo reale, Milan. He opened his first studio in Milan in 1869 and within a few years was employing a large work force, producing numerous replicas of his most popular works. He exhibited widely, taking part in most of the international exhibitions of the day both in Europe and the United States, frequently receiving awards and attracting purchasers. In 1873, at the exhibition of the Società di Belle Arti of Trieste, his La Vergognosa (‘The Bashful One’) was acquired for the Museo Revoltella; in the same year, his La Bolla di sapone (‘Soap Bubbles’) was selected by the Milan Accademia as their entry for the International Exhibition in Vienna; in 1875, at the Esposizione Fiorentina, he won a gold medal for his Amore Accieca (‘Love is Blind’); and in 1876, at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, USA, he won a gold medal for his Donna che trattiene il tempo (‘Woman seeking to arrest the passage of Time’). On its return to Italy this last piece became the second Barcaglia sculpture to be acquired by the Museo Revoltella. The sculptor produced another version in 1884, which was purchased by the Swinfen Broun family of Swinfen Hall, near Lichfield in Staffordshire. Part of Colonel Swinfen Broun’s bequest to the City of Lichfield in 1948, it was subsequently installed in Lichfield Museum and Art Gallery. In 1999 it was placed in storage, in 2001 loaned to the National Arboretum for temporary display in the visitor centre, and afterwards returned to storage. Unable to find a permanent home for the sculpture, Lichfield District Council decided to place it with Sotheby’s auction house where in 2008 it was sold for £150,000. Barcaglia’s sole remaining sculpture on public display in the United Kingdom is his Spezzacamino (‘Chimney Sweep’), c.1881, which in 1943 was erected in Paddington Street Gardens, London, on a pedestal inscribed with a new name, ‘Street Orderly Boy’ (a term chosen by Marylebone Council, a reference to the boys employed by London’s parish councils to clean the streets). Barcaglia’s public statues in Italy include the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II at Intra (1887) and the Monument to the Fallen at Paderno Dugnano (1925).
Bibliography: S. Berresford, Italian Memorial Sculpture 1820–1940. A Legacy of Love, London, 2004, pp. 27–28, 58, 128, 190, 191 (pl. 395), 236 (pl. 458); G.T. Noszlopy and F. Waterhouse, Public Sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country, Liverpool, 2005, pp. 3–4; A. Panzetta, Dizionario degli scultori Italiani dell’ottocento, Turin, 1990; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster. Volume 1, Liverpool, 2011, p. 167.
Terry Cavanagh, November 2024
Carlo Stagliati, Donato Barcaglia, 1897, pencil and charcoal on paper, private collection, Milan (Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, CC-BY 4.0)
