Cleto Tomba (1898-1987) - Dante Alighieri

Gesso bas-relief depicting the face of Dante Alighieri Made by master Cleto Tomba Exceptional sculptural quality Minor defects of time as in the photo Cleto Tomba was born in Castel San Pietro Terme on August 19, 1898, to Gualtiero Pompeo Tomba and Albina Cimatti. He encountered sculpture at a young age, shaping small figures with clay he found while wandering along the river. After his father’s death in 1909, Cleto worked as an apprentice in many artisanal shops but also attended the Scuola d’Arte of Palazzo Ercolani in Bologna. After finishing elementary school in 1912, he made the mascheroni for the waters of the Castel San Pietro thermal baths. In 1913 he began the Comune Courses at the Real Institute of Fine Arts (Academy) of Bologna, where he graduated in 1917 under the guidance of Pasquale Rizzoli. In 1922 he won the competition for the “Monument to the Fallen” in Imola, though it was not executed, while he carried out and won the competition for the one in Casola Valsenio. In 1923 he created the commemorative sculpture at the ossuary of Imola’s cemetery and won second prize in the competition for the “Monument to the Fallen” in Sampierdarena. In 1924 he moved to Bologna where he formed friendships with the artists Nino Bertocchi, Sandrino Cervellati, Melchiorre Bega, Nino Corazza and Ferruccio Giacomelli. Cleto in this period was an established sculptor, with a wholly personal style, so much so that in 1928 he was invited to the XIV Venice Biennale, participating with the plaster sculpture “La marcia su Roma” while the following year he took part in the International Art Exhibition in Barcelona, exhibiting the playful sculpture “Manzoniana,” later reproduced at the Sindacale in Turin two years later. From the mid-1930s he abandoned monumental subjects and created small-format works, the “figurine” pieces that depict the everyday life of both the poor and the rich, with which he participated in numerous national, international and union exhibitions. In 1937 he obtained the chair of figure and ornament modeling at the Bologna Art High School, a chair he held until 1968. Cleto Tomba’s plastic works were welcomed throughout the Italian and international scene with a simple and immediate language, especially after the fortunate show that, at the prompting of Enzo Biagi, he ordered from the Gussoni Gallery in Milan. His “figurines,” ironic and, at times, irreverent, probe without indulgence and with rare attention the vices and virtues, passions and dignity of a life that flows inexorably. In 1960 Cleto Tomba was named Academico di S. Luca. Cleto Tomba died in Bologna on November 29, 1987. Cleto Tomba’s production, focused on sculptural realizations, included training in drawings, both as an autonomous art form and as a preparatory phase for plastic works realized in terracotta, plaster and white patinated cement but also, after the war, in bronze. There are also some works cast by specialized foundries in iron and ceramics.

Stima:€350

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