A tradition that renews itself over time is the attention and support that the Fonderia d’Arte Massimo Del Chiaro of Pietrasanta reserves for the initiatives of the territory, participating with the creation of specifically designed bronze fusions.
The historic Pietrasantina company has numerous collaborations to its credit: from the Viareggio Cup to the Barsanti Award and this summer there will be brand new initiatives and prestigious partnerships, such as the recent collaboration with Fondazione Villa Bertelli on the occasion of the exhibition “Burri, Morandi and other friends”.
In this framework, we also mention the sponsorship of the new Mercurio d’Argento prize, which will be held next August in Massa.
For this occasion the skilled artisans of the Foundry have created the statuette depicting the Mercury of the city’s homonymous square, which will be awarded to the winners: it is a bronze fusion, plated with a galvanic bath in sterling silver, measuring 18 cm high, 8 cm wide and 6 cm deep, on a black granite base measuring 3 cm x 7 cm x 7 cm, which will be placed inside a box / case with a three-door opening, lined in white satin.
A collaboration that is an added value for a prize in its first edition, from a company that can boast 70 years of experience in the “lost wax casting” technique.
The Fonderia d’Arte Massimo Del Chiaro, one of the most prestigious production centres for contemporary art, operates in Pietrasanta, a city famous for the artistic processing of marble and bronze.
The company gathers together and takes advantage of the experience gained by Massimo Del Chiaro in seventy years of activity in the field of works of art in bronze. During his extensive career, Del Chiaro has deepened the study of the ancient lost wax casting method (the same used by the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans) allowing him to become one of the world’s most appreciated experts.
The company, today led by Franco, Barbara and Roberto, Massimo’s children, was founded in 1980. With the growth of production and the need for more employees, Massimo Del Chiaro has expanded his foundry to satisfy all the artists’ requests, leading to the construction of a new foundry in Via delle Iare in 1985.
Conceived according to the most modern use of space, the Foundry occupies an area of 7,000 square metres, divided into large and well-equipped studios, in various workshops for the specific processing required, made available to sculptors, with all the necessary assistance; an area used as a park for relaxing or photographing the already patinated sculptures; a large square with a twelve-metre high crane for assembling works of a colossal size.
In the atelier of Via delle Iare, bronze sculptures are made of any subject and size, directly from the models provided by the clients, or statues from an idea that the artist presents with a drawing or a photograph. The company employs around thirty highly skilled employees who have been working for years with artists from all over the world.
The Del Chiaro family is constantly committed to spreading the art and the culture of artistic craftsmanship, participating in and supporting initiatives in the territory and in the region.
Some of the artists with which the company has collaborated over the course of the years: Fernandez Arman, Karol Apple, Joseph Beuys, Stanley Bleifeld, Fernando Botero, Manuel Carbonell, Augustin Cardenas, Pietro Cascella, Sandro Chia, Girolamo Ciulla, Mauro Corda, Enzo Cucchi, Gino De Dominicis, Fiore De Henriquez, Willem De Kooning, Yrjö Edelmann, Luciano Fabro, Pericle Fazzini, Novello Finotti, Barry Flanagan, Mimmo Germanà, Emilio Greco, Carlo Guarienti, Barry Johnston, Karl Hartung, Nathaniel Kaz, Bruno Liberatore, Bruno Lucchesi, Giacomo Manzù, Harry Marinsky, Francesco Martani, Igor Mitoraj, Mog, Bruce Moore, Rosario Murabito, Nall, Dashi Namdakov, Athos Ongaro, Camilo Otero, Tom Otterness, Giorgio Oykonomoy, Mimmo Paladino, Mario Parri, Giuseppe Penone, Marc Quinn, Joseph Sheppard, Ivan Theimer, Riccardo Tommasi-Ferroni, Marcello Tommasi, Charles Umlauf, Giuliano Vangi, Not Vital, Iorio Vivarelli, Cordelia von den Steinen, Luciano Zanelli.
