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Photo: Vincenzo Vela. 1856. The guardian angel. Tito Pallestrini’s funeral monument. Plaster. Museo Vincenzo Vela. Photo: E. Manship

The poetry of Vincenzo Vela’s works also transpires from the plasters, clays, waxes and raw earths that the sculptor kept in his workshop all his life. It is precisely these materials, moulded, that were the source of the final sculptures.

The research project The sculptor’s mark: plaster models in the legacy of Vincenzo Vela, launched at the end of 2020, has made it possible to study the artist’s creative process thanks to an interdisciplinary team of researchers of the Institute of Materials and Constructions (¾«¶«Ó°Òµ-Department of environment constructions and design) – Alberto Felici, Elisabeth Manship, Giovanni Nicoli, Pierre Jaccard with the collaboration of colleagues Francesca Piqué, Giacinta Jean, Patrizia Moretti, Giovanni Cavallo e Marta Caroselli â€“ together with the Museo Vincenzo Vela and the City of Lugano.

‘The model is almost like a fossil amber where the master’s imprints and the tools with which he worked the material have crystallised,’ emphasises Alberto Felici: ‘It allows us to understand how he transferred the material into the noblest material, which was normally marble’.

A project, therefore, that provided an opportunity to get closer to the sculptor’s way of working, to his ‘doing’.

On the occasion of two study days (reserved for the scholars involved in sharing historical, artistic, archival, technical and scientific knowledge), the entire morning of Monday 4 November 2024 (9:00–12:30) will be specifically dedicated to the presentation of the results to the public, who will be able to follow the interventions (in Italian) in streaming by connecting to (Zoom).

The morning’s welcome will be brought by Luigi Di Corato, Director of the Cultural Division of the City of Lugano, and Nicla Borioli Pozzorini, Head of Formazione di base at the ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ Department of environment constructions and design.