Origo family Coat of Arms

Clemente Origo

Clemente Origo  was a resident of Florence but he was also a Marchese, whose family Coat of Arms is shown alongside, with family land in the Tuscan countryside where his heart and understanding was more in tune with nature more than with the city.

As a result his sculptured subjects commonly display cattle and horses in movement or scenes of herding in the Italian lowlands.

He also painted – again from nature – and usually from life – studying the Italian landscape and the animals within it.

His works were often exhibited at the Promotrice of Florence and other Italian exhibitions but in the early 1900’s his fame was less as a sculptor and more as a friend of the war-monger poet and patriot Gabrielle d’Annunzio, who is shown below with his beloved dogs and below that reading in his ostentatious boudoir.

Clemente Origo is best known to me as the father of Antonio Origo – husband to Iris Origo – her companion throughout WW2 when at one point their property in Val D’Orcia became the front line and they were forced to evacuate with 23 children and walk the 12 miles to Montipuliciano.

Clemente made a special sculpture, of bison crossing a river, for his son, which was placed in a point of honour – outside the main garden area – by Cecil Pinsent when he designed the gardens at La Foce on behalf of Clemente’s daughter in law – the writer Iris Origo.  

This is the only photo I could find of Clemente Origo – in this he is working in the outdoors studying the posture of a man carrying a crossbow to create his sculpture as true as possible to  life

Below- Bear in Bronze as sculpted by Clemete Origo

Clemente Origo also illustrated book covers – as shown below

Finally we get to the large bronze statue of Centaur wrestling with the Stag , referenced in The Pike – Lucy Hughes Hallet’s great biography of Gabriele D’Annunzio.

This work was inspired by one of The Pike’s own poems in 1906 – and watching Origo working in the fierce heat of the foundry – a combination of artistry and danger – inspired the Orator with an image,  which he later used frequently in his war mongering message to the Italian people.

They needed to smash up the existing decadent society of Italy – and smelt it down completely – in order to build up something wonderful and new ……. mmn Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

This is the only 20th century bronze sculpture of the subject matter I could find – no evidence that it is by Clemente Origo – probably it is in private ownership ……… or perhaps it has been smelted down too?

Our next visit to La Foce with Katie Campbell is now scheduled for 3pm Wednesday 7th May