The Piccirilli Factor: A Film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley
New York -- For many years, on my way to di Palo’s I would walk by the Bowery Savings Bank looking past construction barricades, graffiti, pigeon residents and the occasional wayward sleeper. While I knew that this neoclassical building was designed by the illustrious architects McKim, Mead & White in 1895, I often found myself staring up at the allegorical pediment sculptures wondering at the figures who gazed so resolutely across the Bowery.
I am afraid my experience is that of many a New Yorker, we witness the beauty of the Piccirilli chisel without knowing the story of the art itself, its meaning and most importantly its fantastic germination.
Nearly twenty years later I find out on yet another walk (but this time with the filmmaker Eduardo Montes Bradley) that the pediment figures of Time and Industry were conceived by Frederick MacMonnies, and masterfully carved by the Piccirilli brothers who came from Italy to begin anew and in doing so transformed the visual language of American civic life.
I suppose it should not be a surprise that so much is hidden about the art of New York, which finds itself veiled and forgotten in the bustle of the city. As well, the legacy of art is often entirely reliant on the subjective interests of art historians and critics.
Indeed, when I teach or delve into a new project, I am often struck by the seemingly infinite paths found in the history of art. We are tasked with remembering and understanding but much is forgotten. In my field, specialists abound, a scholar dedicated to the marginalia found in thirteenth century manuscripts, hidden away in libraries and rare book rooms, a secret treasure of beauty and knowledge. Still more esoteric are those compelled to study the secret worlds of artists like Hilma af Klint and William Blake.
Others become expert in the monumental declarations of civic duty and sacrifice, the coolly articulated and cruelly irresistible tableaux of Jacques Louis David, some find themselves tracing the history of the textile arts of the indigenous artisans of the American west whispering words of ghosts. Within all art history, we find stories and the mark of the artist or craftsman. Often in the process of research invisibility is revoked, laid bare for all to see, interpreted and experienced.
But what of the objects that lie out in the open and remain somehow unseen? This is precisely what Eduardo Montes Bradley takes to task in his engaging film “The Piccirilli Factor.”
The Piccirilli Factor
This is the story of the Piccirilli brothers, six artists from Massa, Italy whose exceptional skill has transformed many a cityscape and defined the visual language of the ideals of the American republic. To date, it is estimated that there are at least nine hundred examples of the brothers’ sculpture throughout the United States. For the first time in the history of art and film making we follow the story of these artists’ lives and journey to America and their collaborations with leading sculptors and architects.
The forgotten legacy of the Piccirilli brothers began with training at the Accademia di San Luca. It can be said that the artists took the models of American sculptors and translated the inheritance of the grand Italian tradition of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture to create a unique narrative of history and memory.
Memory is an important theme, but in this documentary, we do not become lost in uncertainty or spectral reminiscence, the film possesses great clarity and focuses on the working methods and shows us key monuments, tying us to the immigrant experience of Atillio in particular with recordings of the maestro. Interviews with experts on sculpture and American art explicate the importance of the Piccirillis and at the same time sensitively unravel the continued appeal of the work. The camera is our friend, allowing close study of the extraordinary grace of the brothers’ carving, reminding us of the universal appeal of these works and their place in our collective memory.
We see with new eyes the Riverside Park Fireman’s Memorial designed by H. Van Buren Magonigle with sculptures by Atillio, the fascinating stonework of the Balboa Park California Building, St. Pauls, London as well as the renowned image of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. Familiar to many of us are of course the lions of the New York Public Library and the spandrel figures for Frederick MacMonnies on Stanford White’s Washington Square Arch, the pediment sculpture for John Quincy Adams Ward and Paul Watland Bartlett, New York Stock Exchange Building and the grand allegorical sculptures The Four Continents for Daniel Chester French, US Custom House, New York. Many of us in New York City, walk by admiring the grandeur of these works of art, not knowing who made them, wondering at their majesty, their meaning and their maker. Our questions are answered with this documentary.
If the Piccirilli brothers’ work was meant for the most part to be for the public eye, and for every American the same can be said for this film, it is a clear and engaging narrative that tells the compelling story of a family of immigrant artists, craftsmanship, and creative partnership set against the backdrop of late nineteenth and early twentieth century world history. It is the evening walk for everyone wherein the beauty and histories of American ingenuity are at last revealed when the cloak of dust and distraction are pulled away.
Comentarios