Born in Milan, Italy, Alfredo Pina studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. He continued to work and exhibit almost exclusively in Italy until 1906 when he won the Grand Prix Nationale for sculpture. He then moved to Paris to continue his work at a studio he set up in Sceaux, prompted in large part by his admiration for Rodin and his interest in studying under him. The young Italian sculptor worked in Auguste Rodin’s atelier from 1909-10 and his master’s impact is evident in Pina’s powerful style of modelling. In particular, he was certainly influenced by Rodin’s turmoiled Gates of Hell (1880 – circa 1900).
Pina first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1912. His works included a wide range of subjects including his Icarus, showing the young man collapsed on rocks after his wings melted in the sun. Below Icarus Fallen. Private Collection Cyprus.
It is however for his portrait busts that he has been most heavily collected and his work purchased by Museums, especially those of composers and important writers.
Pina produced a bronze of the Head of Beethoven, modelled in Montpellier during the First World War. He was by no means the first sculptor to have treated the cult of the great composer Beethoven. Guiseppe Grandi, Max Klinger and Emile-Antoine Bourdelle all produced representations of Beethoven that express his genius in terms of an intense pathos and temperament. What set Pina’s bust apart was the Rodinesque play of form in the expressive attitude of the modelling, which deliberately suppresses accuracy of detail for a generalised depiction of inner emotion.
Pina sent a full size bust of Beethoven for exhibition at the Venice Biennale which may be identified as the one in the ‘museum of Venice’ mentioned in de Pawlowski’s biography of the artist published in 1929.
Pina’s bust of Wagner, while sharper in the definition of form, is treated in a similar manner and with a hallmark emphasis on the rendition of the eyes. He produced a small version of the work in 1916, see an example of this bronze version in the collection of the National Gallery Washington, acquired 2004. In 1920 Pina modelled a full size version, the present sculpture being one of these full -sized casts.
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