Head of an Eagle

Renato Brozzi (1885-1963)
1930, Bronze

Born in Traversetolo on August 7,1885, Renato Brozzi began his training at a very young age in a local bronze foundry. Later, while attending the Institute of Fine Arts in Parma, he worked for several local antique dealers until he moved definitively to Rome in 1907. In Rome, he shared one of the home-studios of the Villa Strohl Fern with Amedeo Bocchi, a close friend who came from the same region. Bozzi’s exceptional talents attracted the attention of Gabriele D'Annunzio, who was struck by the young artist's extraordinary ability to adapt to the demands of each commission, according to its final intended location. The animal, made of bronze, is extremely life-like in its rendering and rests on a base of variegated and red marble. Brozzi produced several small bronzes with animal subjects using a fluid technique that showed voluptuous sculptural sensitivity and aristocratic elegance; they were always perfectly coherent with the naturalism and elegance of line that characterised his intellectual and very particular style. Over the course of almost twenty years, starting in 1919, D'Annunzio engaged the artist's creative imagination with commissions of all kinds which found their way to the Vittoriale, including eleven Franciscan Cordiglio Plates, the Cheli Tortoise, and Naval Victory, which was placed on the bow of the Puglia.