A poet, musician, painter, sculptor and ceramicist, Fausto Melotti was born in Rovereto on June 8^th, 1901. He moved to Florence, then studied at the University of Pisa (1918) to finish his studies at the Polytechnic of Milan, from which he graduated in electrical engineering in 1924. In 1928, he enrolled at the Brera Academy in Milan, becoming a pupil of Adolfo Wildt, along with Lucio Fontana, with whom he enjoyed a long friendship.

Melotti was a multi-faceted, extremely prolific artist, and it is virtually impossible to tie his production down to a particular technique or theme without giving a reductive interpretation of his artistic vision.

The sculptures for which he is best known are geometric pieces made from metal (brass, iron and gold) in thin filaments, giving rise to ethereal, weightless, almost fragile compositions. Melotti’s artistic vision translated into a vast production of sculptures and drawings ranging from figurative to geometric and abstract, whose constant wash his personal research, characterized by an arrangement of elements in space following rhythms similar to music. In the aftermath of World War II, the complete destruction of his Milanese studio forced him into an almost frantic production of ceramics and terracotta sculptures. This period produced a very important and radical change in his artistic vision, leading him to suspend his experiments in abstraction and devote himself exclusively to figurative art throughout the 1950s. The figures he made in this period are somewhat enigmatic and he embellished them with a preference for lively many-coloured glazes. The artist brought to life a series of poetic inventions that were extremely original – sun pots, moon pots, fish pots, rooster pots, peacock pots, the large female figures called “Kore” – and at the same time intensified a collaboration with Gio Ponti in some important large-scale decorative interventions. In his ceramics production, Melotti’s sculptural excellence reached summits of exemplary beauty, testifying to a fascinating approach to form and construction. He defined ceramics as “a hash”, “something amphibious,” perhaps to highlight the challenge which they present their craftsman each time; however. the many works he created remain today as evidence of his interest in this medium.

The work presented here was produced at this very time when Fausto Melotti was going through a kind of artistic and creative renaissance. Dreamlike and imaginative, in certain respects both traditional and innovative at the same time, Melotti’s pottery embodies a freedom of vision capable of transcending models and conventions, demonstrating a resolved stylistic autonomy capable of being reproduced in an infinite range of variations. The variety of solutions using different colours, iconographies, and forms gives an insight into the wide range of models, interests, passions, and knowledge that underlay their production.

The sculpture presented here was made sometime in the 1950s and expresses the typical characteristics of the artist’s entire artistic journey: the lightness of the material, the powerful spirituality, the architectural propensity. The woman is wearing a long draped dress, while a mantle covers her head almost as if a gust of wind behind her had ballooned the fabric. One delicately tapering hand is approaching her breast while the other is resting against her body.

In some works, as in the one presented here, one can see more of the influence of Lucio Fontana (FIG: 1). Just as in the latter's work, the dress and mantle expand into space with several ripples. The bright colours and baroque shapes echo the “Fontanian” style and are as far from the dominant taste of the time as could be.

 Fig. 1

Lucio Fontana, Donna che balla,, Polychrome glazed ceramic, 1950 c.