Francesco Ciusa (1883 in

Nuoro Nuoro ( or less correctly ; sc, Nùgoro ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347 (2011), ...

– 1949 in Cagliari) was an Italian sculptor.

Biography

Born in the town of

, on the island of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

in Italy, his father was an

Ébéniste ''Ébéniste'' () is a loanword (from French) for a cabinet-maker, particularly one who works in ebony. Etymology and ambiguities As opposed to ''ébéniste'', the term ''menuisier'' denotes a woodcarver or chairmaker in French. The English equi ...

, or cabinet maker. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence from 1899 to 1903, where he had as teachers affirmed artists such as

Adolfo De Carolis Adolfo de Carolis (1874–1928) was an Italian painter, xylographer, illustrator and photographer. He is generally associated with Art Nouveau (known as "Stile Liberty" in Italy), although many of his works could also be classified as Symbolism. ...

, the sculptor

Domenico Trentacoste Domenico Trentacoste (20 September 1859 – 18 March 1933) was an Italian sculptor. Biography Born in Palermo, Sicily; at the age of 12 years, Trentacoste began apprenticing with the sculptor Domenico Costantino. As a young man he travelled t ...

and the master of the

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to ...

's movement

Giovanni Fattori Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Barbi ...

He moved to Sassari Sardinia in 1904, where he knew famous artists like

Giuseppe Biasi Giuseppe Biasi (Sassari, 1885 – Andorno Micca (Biella), 1945) was an Italian painter. Biography While pursuing classical studies in accordance with his family’s wishes, Biasi became well known in his hometown for caricatures published in loc ...

then returned to his hometown Nuoro in 1905. He won the first prize at the

Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

with the sculpture ''La madre dell'ucciso''. Five copies of the sculpture were realised, one in bronze is today exhibited at the

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna The ("national gallery of modern and contemporary art"), also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then Minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contempor ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, and another one in plaster is exhibited at ''Galleria comunale d'arte'' in Cagliari. In 1913 he worked on the completion of the Cagliari's City Hall, together the artists Mario Delitala, Felice Melis and Filippo Figari. In 1923, he focused on the production of small ceramics. In 1924 he opened a School of Art in Oristano. In 1928 he exhibited a sculpture for the second time at the Venice Biennale. In March 1937 he began to write his autobiography, describing his memories and visions as a child, and the ideal path of his works in the background of an ancient world. In 1943 he was professor of design at the faculty of engineering at the

University of Cagliari The University of Cagliari ( it, Università degli Studi di Cagliari) is a university in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It was founded in 1606 and is organized in 11 faculties. History The ''Studium Generalis Kalaritanum'' was founded in 1606 alon ...

. He died in Cagliari in 1949.

Bibliography

*Giuliana Altea, ''Francesco Ciusa'', Ilisso, 2004
testo disponibile online
(

.pdf Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

) *Giuliana Altea e Marco Magnani (storico dell'arte), ''Pittura e scultura dal 1930 al 1960'', collana "Storia dell'arte in Sardegna", Ilisso per Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, 2000 *Remo Branca, ''La vita nell'arte di Francesco Ciusa'', Editrice Sarda Fossataro, Cagliari, 1975. *Rossana Bossaglia, ''Francesco Ciusa'', Ilisso, Nuoro, 1990. *F. Spano Satta, ''Il monumento nuorese a Sebastiano Satta (intervista con Francesco Ciusa)'', in L'Isola, Sassari, 28 gennaio 1931 *Francesco Ciusa, ''Una lettera di Francesco Ciusa'' ne

L'Unione Sarda ''L'Unione Sarda'' is an Italian regional daily newspaper for the island of Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, lab ...

, Cagliari, 18 gennaio 1944

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciusa, Francesco People from Nuoro 1883 births 1949 deaths 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists Italian male sculptors Academic staff of the University of Cagliari