Barbella, Costantino

Costantino Barbella was born on January 31, 1852 in Chieti, in the Kingdom of Italy, in the family of Sebastiano Chieti and Maria Bevilacqua. His parents conducted a family business and tried to instill interest in him with his son. But he did not feel like trading.

His figures for Christmas nativity scenes, which the young Costantino Barbela sculpted and sold in the family store, were noticed by the artist Francesco Paolo Miketti. In 1872, he helped him receive a grant from the province of Chieti to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in Naples. The young sculptor won the grant, providing the jury with the composition “Descent from the Cross”. At the Academy, Costantino Barbella studied sculpture with Stanislao Liszt and Vincenzo Jemito . He completed his education in 1874.

He specialized in creating small compositions of clay or bronze, depicting scenes from the life of peasants and the customs of his homeland. These works brought the sculptor international recognition. In 1875, one of his sculptures, “The Joy of Innocence after Work,” was acquired by King Vittorio Emanuele II and donated to the Capodimonte Gallery.

Costantino Barbella oversaw the construction of the pavilion of the Kingdom of Italy at the International Exhibition in Antwerp in 1884, after which he received the title of Honorary Professor of the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Rome. Exhibitions of his works were held in Paris, Berlin, London, Amsterdam and other European capitals, as well as in Buenos Aires. In 1899 he participated in the III International Art Exhibition in Venice.

In 1877, he showed the public his most famous work - “A Song of Love”, a group of three sculptures - three girls walk hugging and singing. Among his other works are terracotta and bronze sculptures “Confidence”, “April”, “Drinking Boy”, “Shepherdesses”, “Return”, “Test of the draftee” and many others, now kept in the Pinakothek of the city of Chieti.

Costantino Barbella was also a skilled painter, an excellent portrait painter. He created portraits of Pietro Mascagni, with whom he had a deep friendship, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, Pope Leo XIII, Prince Daniel and Princess Militsa of Montenegro and many others.

The sculptor was a great friend of his great countrymen - composer Francesco Paolo Tosti, poet Gabriele dʼAnnunzio and artist Francesco Paolo Miketti. Together with them, he spent most of his vacation in a former Franciscan monastery in Francavilla al Mare , which went down in the history of Italian culture under the name of the cloister of Michetti , or the Mikettian chamber.

Toward the end of his life, Costantino Barbella almost completely lost his sight. The reason for this was the death of his only son on the front of the First World War. His last exhibition was held in 1920 in Rome. He died in Rome on December 5, 1925. Chieti has the Costantino Barbella Museum of Art.

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  La Scannese

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  Canto d'Amore

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