Felice Tosalli, Europe's Greatest Animal Sculptor, Gets Retrospective at Mart

The Mart museum in Rovereto is hosting the first Italian museum retrospective of Felice Tosalli (Turin, 1883–1958), considered Europe's most important animalier sculptor. Curated by Alfonso Panzetta with Beatrice Avanzi, the exhibition titled "Felice Tosalli. Animali di un altro sogno" runs until September 8. Tosalli, son of a carpenter, studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Turin before moving to Paris in 1904, where he spent three years observing exotic animals at the Jardin des Plantes. He later worked for the Lenci ceramics company in Turin, the German porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal, and Ceramiche d'Arte Campionesi. His last solo show was at Sala d'Arte Lombardi in Turin in 1937. Panzetta notes that Tosalli participated in the "golden age" of Italian animalism in the 1920s–30s, influenced by writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Emilio Salgari, Rudyard Kipling, and Romain Rolland, as well as symbolism, Egyptian, Greek, and Oriental art. His particular attention to cubs prefigured Disney's anthropomorphism.