Filippo Cifariello

Filippo Cifariello quotations.

Filippo Cifariello’s bronze, wax, or marble busts and figures start at 1,000 euros and go up to 2,700 euros, but these figures can be exceeded by more committed bronzes: the auction record was 4,924 euros in 1999 for a marble head of Fakir, one of his most representative subjects.

Small bronze female figures range from 250 euros to 900 euros depending on the subject.

These values are only indicative. Many factors contribute to the valuation of a work, such as technique, subject, size, and period of execution. Send us a photo of your sculpture by Filippo Cifariello to get an accurate and personalized evaluation from our experts.

Biography

Filippo Cifariello was born in Molfetta in 1864, the son of a multifaceted artist of no particular talent, he lived in poverty and for this reason from an early age found himself helping the family financially. He thus gave up his studies and contributed to the family expenses, instead exploiting his flair for the plastic arts, and began selling clay figurines. The family, having moved to Bari, Andria and then Trani, eventually settled in Naples. Here, despite economic difficulties, the artist managed to attend the Academy of Fine Arts, where he took classes in drawing from painter Gioacchino Toma and in sculpture from Achille D’Orsi.

Verist sculpture

Due to his restless and rebellious character he argues with different personalities and abandons academic studies shortly afterwards. He then began to work as a modeler of small busts or decorations, also participating in several national exhibitions: in 1881 he distinguished himself at the Esposizione romana for a Self-portrait; in 1883, also in Rome, he presented instead Studio da vero and Il volgo napolitano; while in Naples he participated with Primi palpiti, which was accused of excessive verism. At that time the controversy between verists and academics was very heated, so much so that some accused him of forming sculpture from life, through casts.

In the following years he participated in several Neapolitan exhibitions: in 1884 he took part with three works with lighter themes concerning genre sculpture Non possumus, Piedigrotta, Un bacio dato non è mai perduto. Proverbio del de Renzis. Also in Naples the following year he participated with Lu capo Ninno and Ai bagni di S. Lucia; while in 1888 he exhibited nine works Da San Carlo, Eterna Musa, Civilta?!, Ritratto del Senatore Tommasi, Turchina, Un corvo!!, Doppio mestiere, Ritratto dell’onorevole Bovio and Secondo tentativo di pittura.

The Roman and German years

In 1889 he moved and Rome and remained there until 1905, alternating a stay in Bavaria, having obtained the position of director of the Lench factory, in which they made models in biscuit porcelain . In 1890 he participated in the Capital Exhibition with Ad maiorem Dei gloriam and three Portraits, for which he received gold medals. By now the sculptor had achieved fame, and despite criticism and controversy, this would never leave him.

In 1892 he exhibited in Palermo three works Napoletana, A raven in bronze and a plaster depicting Christ and the Magdalene, a statuary group that obtained much fortune; in 1896 we also find him at the Florence Exposition with Portrait of Daniele Muninger, Fakir, Portrait of the Honorable Pugliese, Study from life and Portrait of Eugenio Checchi.

The art of psychological portraiture and the influence of Art Nouveau allegory

His language in this period approached the floral style that prevailed in those years, but without obscuring that verism that has always characterized his works and that therefore now coexists with the liberty taste. In 1898 he participated in the Turin Exposition with the work Les malheureux, which depicts the dramatic transportation of the body of an injured worker, thus dealing with the theme of an accident at work, but which also becomes an allegory of pain.

Indeed, the artist devotes his work to social themes, the art of portraiture or the depiction of allegories, and prefers the material of bronze. His portraits are characterized by a particular expressiveness of modeling and a singular attention to psychological rendering.

In 1899 he was invited to the Venice Biennale, at which he exhibited six works Bust of a Woman, Bavarian Type, The Annunciation of Love – Group for Fountain, Typically Liberty, Sphinx, Portrait and Arnoldo Böcklin, one of the most faithful and successful depictions.

A troubled marriage and the beginning of the end

In 1894 the sculptor married Ninì de Browne, an exuberant French songstress, but their affair was very difficult, and in 1905 the artist was guilty of murder, killing her out of jealousy. This affair becomes one of the most well-known and talked-about passion events and trials in post-Humbertine Italy. The sculptor was acquitted, however, and ill, he moved to Naples, where he returned to sculpting.

He also made several monuments for Italian squares and gardens, such as the one depicting Mazzini characterized by noble composure executed for Molfetta or the monument to Umberto I in Bari.

He returned to exhibit in 1911, after the unfortunate murder, both in Naples with Ritratto di Signora, Settembrina, Comm. Nicola Di Scanno and Il Comm. Scotti in “Tosca,” and in Rome with a Ritratto. In 1913 he was in Naples and presented Pain is Life and Portrait of Major General Marincola. He also works on small-format figures with sacred themes that echo popular iconography, especially from Puglia. Another inauspicious event occurred in 1914; his second wife, Evelina Fabbri, perished in a domestic accident. His mental health problems became acute and he sank into a heavy depression. Even a third marriage and the birth of two children did not alleviate his malaise. He participated in the 1924 Venice Biennale with Francesco Mastriani, Ritratto di Signora and Ermete Novelli; and in 1933 in Naples he exhibited Nino Costa and Amleto Novelli. He ended his days by taking his own life in his studio in the Neapolitan city in 1936.

Emanuela Di Vivona