WRITE ABOUT HIM
LO SCARRIOLANTE
Sculpture in bronze - Artist: Giancarlo Boselli
commissioned by CPL Concordia, Cooperative of Concordia (Modena)
The sculpture made by Boselli let us see a man at work. This is one “Scarriolante”, that of a worker who earned a living by shovel and wheelbarrow (hence the name "scarriolante") by earthworks, handling and transport of land, digging canals, raising of river banks, etc.. The “scarriolante”, about 1 meter high and 70, pushes a wheelbarrow (in reality was of wood, then wood and iron) with a single wheel with eight spokes, the weight of clods of earth moved to the front and two arms stretched out in effort of thrust. Sometimes they were in fact go up (like the one in sculpture, is represented in the wheelbarrow), walkways, slippery descents, or the greatest difficulties to be overcome between the place where the work began and the place where the work finished. This man wears big shoes, long pants for protection from dust, a simple shirt with the sleeves rolled up on his forearms and a hat with the brim, which is essential to defend himself from the summer heat wave. The earthwork in fact took place mainly in good weather and stopped totally in winter because the frosted ground was impossible to dig. The man has a look of fatigue and concentration, with a portrait neck veins show the effort of lifting the handles of the wheelbarrow full of clods. The latter, portrayed as soft bricks piled on one another, appear depicted in an extremely realistic than the reality: the shovel was in fact a "cut" slices of tert, and every blow of gear, every inch of embankment excavated was measured and corresponded to the duty of the worker and pays at the end of the day with the system of piecework. The cooperative Cpl Concordia, founded in 1899 on the spur of the need for the existence of these workers and unemployed workers of the lands of Modena, saw more than 1500 members unite to win the work and food for themselves and their families. Work, hard work to push forward the wheelbarrow have sharpened the outlines of man but also represent a strong desire to succeed by their own efforts to earn a better life and less hardship.
Roberto Casari, CPL Concordia Manager
The echoes of a rich city in history, Mantua, and the suggestions of Andrea Mantegna come to Venice in the great works of the artist Giancarlo Boselli chaser who leaves on his observations in copper and steel embossed a memory trail that comes down to our days forms and subjects relived intense in their structural essence. Giancarlo Boselli interpreted with care and sensitivity different themes joined by a key element: the sign, always sinuous, refined, solid conductor volumes and ethereal at the same time. It emerges when it takes life on smooth faces, bodies and expressions of great pregnancy. Among the subjects stand out the faces of two chubby babies, the solemn figure of the risen Christ, the homage to the dead Christ by Mantegna. Everywhere a sense of airy space, the taste for harmonious image, the careful analysis of the proportions that accentuate the presence of "physical 'works.
Dott. Gabriella Niero
In the works of this Artist and in the admiration of these great artistic works, the viewer has a feeling of peace and serenity. This art has the ability to encapsulate feelings, the courage to manifest through the figures from the expression intensity, the plasticity of forms and harmony of the subjects. Boselli through his highly personal sculptural images can give a complete view of things, through the movement of matter, which gives his broad figure of speech, messages, communication to reach the most sublime heights of contemporary art.
Fernanda Banchi
Copper, brass, silver, chisels, awls, hammers: from these materials and from these tools takes life the art of Giancarlo Boselli, an art that, in specific, embodies the ancient greek concept of techno, skills, expertise. The metal that the Artist uses serves not only as support material but also creates a background from which he can draw shapes and spaces that make these works special because of their inherent vital energy, with an outcome of the extraordinary dynamism of composition of overcoming their natural crystallization of matter. Under the blows of his wise and skilful engraver, Boselli transcends the limits of the two-dimensionality of metal foil, giving a sort of lightness inherent to the figures and objects highlighted. Here, then, take shape, just by way of example, the scene of Cupid and Psyche, the triumph of good or the dead Christ, and taken from the homonymous famous painting by Andrea Mantegna.
The images, are loaded with a remarkable expressive value and the wealth of particular, astute kinetic impressed with figures from the chisel, their compactness and plasticity, and finally the intensity of the nuances weave together to develop an art of great breath and especially deep vitality. Following these brief remarks is therefore illegitimate to say that Giancarlo Boselli is, etymologically speaking, even a real Maieutic Art, who knows, that is, brute and inert matter soar beyond the limits of his own physicality and extract from it in new light, a field of infinite creative possibilities.
Prof. Ettore Campi
For years now the difficult and ancient art of embossed and chiseled copper and silver finds apt expression in the work of Giancarlo Boselli, citizen of Moglia di Sermide (Mantua). With the support of beeswax, lead, or pitch, with tools forged by himself, the artist works in metals plasma works made by celebrities: artists of the Renaissance humanist from Mantegna (the dead Christ in Breda) to Giulio Romano (Psyche sleeper, Olympics, Jupiter, Mars and Venus bathing, Bacchus and Ariadne, Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea, The Fall of Phaeton and operations for his invention, the original figures from the popular imagination and everyday experience of work and affections, turre marked safe by the gesture of the craftsman, adept at capturing light as in the search for the effects of light. Numerous prizes, awarded by qualified juries are gratifying Boselli, who in his copious production expresses the endless pleasure of repeating the actions of artists the past and the wonder of personal creation.
Prof. Rodolfi Signorini
WROTE ABOUT HIM
Stefano Scansani, Fernando Villani, Michele Borghi, Antonella Vincenzi, Ugo Baganza, Gabor, Rodolfo Signorini, Siro Mantovani, Carlo Benfatti, Federico Morra, Orfango Campigli, Gabriella Niero, Vittorio Montanari, Marilena Bugan Chiara Mora, Paola Cortese, Bertarella Sivestro.