Arturo Martini | Modern sculptor

Arturo Martini, (1889, Treviso - 1947, Milan), Italian sculptor and painter who was active between the World Wars.

He is known for figurative sculptures executed in a wide variety of styles and materials.

Martini was trained in goldsmithing and in ceramics and worked for a time as a potter.

In 1905 he began sculpting; he attended art classes in Italy at Treviso and Venice before traveling to Munich, Germany, where he studied under the academic sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand in 1909.

Emilio Greco | Figurative sculptor

Emilio Greco (1913-1995) - Italian sculptor and draughtsman, mainly of female figures and portrait busts.

Born in Catania, Sicily.

At the age of thirteen entered the workshop of a stone mason, learning to carve crosses and figures for cemeteries; also began making sculpture on his own account and studied briefly at the Palermo Academy 1934.

The Marathon Boy, 340-330 B.C.

The Marathon Boy or Ephebe of Marathon is a Greek bronze sculpture found in the Aegean Sea in the bay of Marathon in 1925.

It is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where it is dated to around 340-330 BC.

The Museum suggests that the subject is the winner of an athletic competition.

Massimo Fedele, 1964 | Abstract painter

Massimo Fedele was born in Turin, Italy.

After a few months his family moved to Apulia, in San Vito dei Normanni (Brindisi) where he still lives and works.

After obtaining a diploma from the local Technical and Commercial Institute, he realised he was not on the right track.

Antonio Canova | Paolina Borghese, 1805-1808

The reclining Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix in the center of the room holds an apple in her hand, evoking the Venus Victrix in the judgement of Paris, who was chosen to settle a dispute between Juno (power), Minerva (arts and science) and Venus (love).

The same subject was painted on the ceiling by Domenico de Angelis (1779), framed by Giovan Battista Marchetti's tromp d'oeil architecture, and was inspired by a famous relief on the façade of the Villa Medici.

This marble statue of Pauline in a highly refined pose is considered a supreme example of the Neoclassical style.

Sleeping Hermaphroditus / L'Ermafrodito dormiente

The ambivalence and voluptuous curves of this figure of Hermaphroditus, who lies asleep on a mattress sculpted by Bernini, are still a source of fascination today.

His body merged with that of the nymph Salmacis, whose advances he had rejected, Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, is represented as a bisexed figure.

The original that inspired this figure would have dated from the 2nd century BC, reflecting the late Hellenistic taste for the theatrical.

Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities: Hellenistic Art (3rd-1st centuries BC) Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities - Musée du Louvre.

Henri Matisse | Orientalist Odalisque

In 1917 Matisse relocated to Cimiez on the French Riviera, a suburb of the city of Nice.

His work of the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach.

This "return to order" is characteristic of much art of the post-World War I period and can be compared with the neoclassicism of Picasso and Stravinsky as well as the return to traditionalism of Derain.

Michelangelo | Bacchus, 1496-1497

Bacchus (1496-1497) is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti.

The statue is somewhat over life-size and depicts Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, in a reeling pose suggestive of drunkenness.

Commissioned by Raffaele Riario, a high-ranking Cardinal and collector of antique sculpture, it was rejected by him and was bought instead by Jacopo Galli, Riario’s banker and a friend to Michelangelo.

Along with the Pietà the Bacchus is one of only two surviving sculptures from the artist's first period in Rome.