Aroldo Bellini

Aroldo Bellini quotations

The bronze sculptures of Aroldo Bellini, a rare artist in public sales, are valued between €1,000 and €4,500, depending on the subject and size. The most significant marble works, created in the 1920s and 1930s and characterised by athletic or feminine figures with an archaic style, can exceed these figures, reaching between €6,000 and €12,000 and above.

The values shown are indicative. To receive a free, up-to-date and personalised valuation of a sculpture by Aroldo Bellini, please send us a photo of your work: the estimate depends on a number of factors such as subject, period, technique, material, size and quality of execution.

Biography

Aroldo Bellini studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, his hometown, where he first studied sculpture and then architecture. After graduating in 1927, he moved to Rome in 1931. That same year, he was awarded a prestigious commission: to create statues for the new sports complex at the Foro Mussolini, specifically for the Stadio dei Marmi. This commission kept him busy for a long time and marked the beginning of his career.

Monumental sculpture during the Ventennio

Between 1931 and the middle of the decade, Bellini completed thirteen statues of athletes for the Stadio dei Marmi, works that express formal compactness and a clear attention to the physical rendering of movement. His ability to combine volumetric power and naturalistic details – from facial features to hairstyles and poses – makes the athletic figures both solemn and dynamic at the same time.

During the same commission, he also created other important works: the bronze group of Wrestlers, located on the grandstand, the Young Athlete with Strigile and the Swimmer at the Start in the indoor swimming pool. In The Walker, on the other hand, the reference to classical statuary is clearly evident in the balance of the bodies and the precision of the muscular tension.

At the same time, Bellini embarked on a project of exceptional dimensions: a bronze statue of Mussolini depicted as Hercules, intended for Piazza Venezia. The work, which was supposed to exceed the Statue of Liberty in size, was never completed. Only two parts were ever made, a monumental head and a colossal foot, symbols of the regime’s rhetoric.

Between intimate subjects and teaching

Alongside celebratory sculpture, Bellini developed a more intimate and poetic language in his female figures, characterised by fluid lines, soft volumes and an expressive delicacy reminiscent of the Novecento tradition. Among his most representative works are Figura che si volge (Figure Turning), Modella a riposo (Model at Rest), Abbandono (Abandonment), Vedova (Widow) and Dopo la danza (After the Dance), compositions which, while referring to a sober primitivism, convey an intense lyrical and private dimension.

In 1939, he participated in the Rome Quadriennale with the bronze Nuotatore alla partenza (Swimmer at the Start) and the plaster Buona terra (Good Earth), confirming the breadth of his interests and his ability to move between different subjects. After the war, however, his name remained linked almost exclusively to the statues of the Stadio dei Marmi, while critics tended to forget the rest of his production.

From the 1940s onwards, Bellini devoted himself to teaching at the Art School in Via Crescenzio in Rome, an activity he continued until the 1970s. He died in the capital in 1984, at the age of eighty-two.

Elena Lago