Monument for a Humanist

There is no more celebrated living art ist in Italy than Giacomo Manzu. At 60, he is renowned throughout Europe for his stately cardinals, his great bronze doors of St. Peter's in Rome, and his role as friend, confidant and portraitist of Pope John XXIII. It was altogether fitting, then, that this summer Manzu should become the only living Italian art ist to have a museum dedicated to his work alone.

A severe stucco structure, the museum is set in a gracious garden of lawns, rosebushes, palms and pines at Ardea, 25 miles south of Rome. It houses 67 bronze sculptures, 271 drawings, 36 engravings and 40 gold figurines and medallions. All were donated by Inge Schabel, Manzu's longtime companion and model, with whom he has lived since 1954 and by whom he has two children, Giulia, 6, and Mileto, 4. Manzu had given the works to her as a kind of unofficial legacy. Otherwise, at his death, they would legally have gone to his wife. The couple have long been separated, but in Catholic Italy they cannot be divorced.

In front of the museum fly 14 flags representing the nationalities of the patrons who contributed funds to build it. Among them are Novelist Alberto Moravia, Philosopher Martin Heidegger and Composer Igor Stravinsky, Film Directors John Huston, Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard, Diplomat George Kennan and Heart Surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard. For those who had thought of Manzu as a strictly religious artist, the museum's collection may be a minor revelation. It demonstrates Manzu's uniquely quattrocento humanistic outlook, a faith and joy in life that could comprehend both genuine piety and unabashed lustiness. Besides many casts of the reliefs from the doors of St. Peter's, and other examples of his well-known religious works, there are lusty compositions of embracing lovers in the spirit of Boccaccio, sensuous studies of Inge in the nude, and a 1967 bust of her that has the graceful serenity of a Donatello Madonna.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.