Italian concept of the day, “Spezzatura” the art of making the difficult look effortless. The white hot acid patina is one of the most delicate and beautiful, but also challenging patinas for bronze. It can only be created under certain very specific conditions, including the type of torch used to heat the metal. Not any torch will do, it needs to be able to be precisely controlled. The torch in this reel was hand-made for me specifically according to my specifications by an old torch-making company that creates them for brass musical instrument fabrication. One wrong move, overheating the metal for even a minute and the patina burns, but when all the conditions are right, working with surety, and the tools are purpose made, the result is a patina that traverses the bronze in silvery skeins of white over the golden glowing bronze. Pictured, a limited edition of Allora in bronze.
I always have loved the way raw bronze casts look when their molds are broken open after the pouring. When I was a young art student, I saw an installation of Marino Marini at the Guggenheim in NYC and his bronze casts, left with the remnants of the raw casts were a revelation to me. I don’t leave the castings in raw state as Marini did, but I have worked with my patina method over the years to develop a way to capture that powdery delicacy of the raw bronze with the investment refractory material still clinging to it.
Pictured, a new work “Turms” raw cast from last weeks bronze pouring, just broken out of its mold, then executing my method for hot acid white patina, and lastly a finished sculpture with the patina, “Allora.” It’s not the only kind of patina I am drawn to, but I do love to see my work this way. I am curious to hear what patinas, others like to see in bronze.
A new artwork takes shape at the foundry. There is something so powerful about raw casts when they emerge from the bronze pour.
Always a moment of discovery where serendipity meets intention.
The meaning of muse has been changed by modern society to imply something less than divine. But in its true sense, a muse is the divine inspiration that gives an artist the vision and bravery to assail some otherwise impossible creative challenge.
Melpomene is the Muse of Greek tragedy. It does not mean she was tragic in the sense of being dark, or defeated, quite the opposite, she gave strength to the classic tragedians to tell stories of great figures, confronting insurmountable odds, often against the gods themselves.
And while they would ultimately be destroyed by their tragic destiny, they would also forge their immortality by being unbowed by destiny.
Tragedy, not happy endings, is the forge of heroes.
When I was commissioned to create the monumental bronze Melpomene, this is what I strove to capture. Every artwork I create has a story. Sharing them is what gives them life.
There is a sacred window in the life of a sculpture where it exists only in wax. Every stroke of the tool and every fingerprint is a raw, fleeting thought—soon to be immortalized in bronze.
For the collector, this stage is a rare opportunity to witness the “original breath” of the work before it undergoes the alchemy of the lost-wax process.
To own a bronze is to own this history, transformed into an enduring legacy.
Now Accepting Inquiries. This piece, entitled Dilyana Demiurge, is currently in the refinement stage. I am inviting collectors to follow its journey and reserve a cast from the upcoming edition.
Please direct private inquiries to the studio for details on acquisition and edition availability.
#RomoloDelDeo #BronzeSculpture #ArtCollector #FineArt #StudioLife ContemporaryArt LostWax SculptureInProgress
Here in Versilia, today is Pasquetta, a day for new starts, the new season.
The red casting wax for the new sculpture Dilyana Demiurge reposes between sculpting sessions with hot irons, in her marble bath in my studio.
When completed the sculpted wax will be cast into bronze.
Auguri di Primavera - April in Venice on the Grand Canal.
Detail of the monumental Tree of Life Which Is Ours limited edition bronze by Romolo Del Deo.
I create small bronze castings to work out ideas for larger sculptures and to help me imagine how they would be at scale.
There is something about bronze that has its own monumentality, no matter what size the artwork.
Sirena Aesculpaia
Limited edition in Bronze by Romolo Del Deo
15 x 3 x 3 in
38.1 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm
One of the inspiring things about bronze is that it reacts in such beautiful ways, with different patina treatments. Patina is not paint or coloring, it is a metallurgical reaction with the bronze itself. A living manifestation of the material. Because I create my work in limited editions of 5, I get the opportunity to explore the work through different patinas and collectors have the possibility of choice.
Pictured, Melpomene study in bronze edition with Cobalt Patinas, Verdigris and Gold-Ocre, pictured in progress in the foundry at Fonderia Artistica L’Arte
