A survey of critical reviews by
Elio Mercuri, Ciro Ruju and Mario Ursino
of the statue "Saint Francis" by Alfiero Nena
...His sculptures appear before me, tender image of a
girl in "Waiting", his "Horses" rearing
up like tree trunks in the presence of man, in this clear
relaionship which I feel to be that precious place where
life, every living thing, is brought back toward its most
inflessible possession; a true presence, eternal and sacred.
It is the secret of his Saint Francis who speaks to the
birds and to the wolf; he speaks to water and to the plants,
the consequence of that love wich is the source and the
reason for every living thing and wich alone restores
peace. Steady on his feet, big and strong, he stands there
rooted to the heart, like an ancient tree; but whose branches
reach toward heaven as if caught by a breat of wind, stretched
out with this need o fly - didn't Brancusi say that all
sculpture is a search for "flight"? - that wich
reunites heaven and earth, starting point and destination,
body and soul, and the insuperable simplicity of every
creature. This was Francis in his own time, joy of love,
and in being there, is make his presence true in our present
time, what Nena embodies in the admirable strength of
the sculpture...
Elio Mercuri
... And the singularity of this poet-Saint
consists precisely in his aving anticipated much of the
distinguished medieval literature (Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio)
in exalting the works of the creation;except that, for
him, the great love for Nature (brother is the sun, the
wind, sister is the water, the heart, the moon) became
the means to aspire to the divine. This idea is expressed
well by Alfiero Nena when he draws like a bow in space
the monumental image of the Saint which is situated in
the middle of the huge esedra in front of the church of
the Saint Francis in Sorrento, a few steps away from one
of the most impressive views (from Procida to Vesuvius)
in Campania.
Tha work seems to soar into air with a very strong movement
which the sculptor has skillfully realized in the drapery
of the torn and hermitic habit, which adheres to the musculature
of the young Saint, with its classical folds of ancient
and Arnolfian taste.
And also in this Saint Francis we find again the extraordinary
vitality (typical of all of Nena's sculpture) which is
associated with the resumption of the formal ideals of
the best italian tradition, that is to say, the linguistic
renewal introduced, in fact, by Arnolfo di Cambio (1245
- 1302) through his annotation of some realistic details
and characterizing gesture of the late antique establishment;
on this illustrous tradition, therefore, Alfiero Nena
grafts, then, his great understanding of is favourite
materials, like iron and bronze which he makes malleable
to emphasize better his own innovative conception of representation
of holy subject matter, to which he means to give the
maximum of expressiveness and creative tension...
Mario Ursino
The image of Francis has been realized in a plasticity
tense and vibrant, in an effective anatomy just a the
moment when in a backward leap he encounters the bird
which will (or wishes to) rest on his hand.
This a gesture captured in realistic spontaneity which
emphasizes, under the religious habit, the uman anatomical
structures in a whole complex which harmonizes well with
the entire composition.
The structure is not simple and it is intented to harmonize
simbolically with religious values. The image is itself
complex as it is the synthesis of a spiritual experience
which reveals in the statuary that point of connection
betwen the uman and the divine.
In my opinion, Nena achieves this link with his sculpture
(a figure which can compete with the aulic tradition of
making sculpture). It is a realistic representation from
which, whether from his technical skills (intervention
on the fusion already realized), or from his aesthetic
skill (the scrupulous care of details), emerges an effective
sacrality which gives to the sculpture of Saint Francis
an expressiveness and the visual dynamics of great emotional
suggestiveness.
Ciro Ruju
