The Longilineal Women Sculptures of Arcisa Stefani

Arcisa Stefani is a sculptor and artist from Schio, who is known for her women's sculptures with thin, tall and elongated bodies. This post is about her, her art and her artistic journey.

Her sculptures make me think of the Mannerism style of art which had developed in Italy during late renaissance in 17th century. Some time ago, I had already written a post about some of the contemporary artists who show elongated bodies inspired from the Mannerism style in their art.

Let me start with a brief introduction about Mannerism, before presenting Arcisa and her sculptures.

Mannerism style of art in late renaissance period

In the 14th century, the beginning of the renaissance period in Italy saw important innovations in the works of artists. For example, the Lombard school saw a move towards realism, while in Tuscany, the artists, starting with Brunelleschi, developed the use of perspective in art. These refinements reached their peak in the works of masters like Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Raphael during the 1500s.

This period was followed by an art movement known as "Mannerism", characterised by a compression of space, along with an elongated proportions of some body parts, specially necks, arms and legs. Different modern artists have been inspired by this style, especially for making tall thin women-bodies with elongated necks and limbs.

Arcisa Stefani

Arcisa had studied commerce at School and worked in sales for almost 25 years, before discovering the artist in her. She and her husband had a shop. She is retired now. 

Thirty years ago, Arcisa fell in love with the sculptures of Mario Converio, the resident sculptor of Schio. She decided that she also wanted to do something similar and became a disciple of Mario, and learned from him.

Then she joined an evening course for adults at the Schio's art school (Liceo artistico Martini). There, she worked with models and learned anatomy, postures, etc. Thus, coupled with the practical skills learned from Mario and the formal training at the art school, she started to experiment as a sculptor, while she formally continued to work in sales.

Once she started sculpting, she has never stopped. She loves working with clay. She prefers using her hands, though sometimes she can need instruments, to sharpen the edges or to give specific effects. About her work as an artist, she pointed to a sculpture and said, "For example, I had used a small rake like instrument to make those lines on the shawl."

The clay sculptures need to be heated at high temperatures (around 1,100 C). She gets it done at an industrial furnace on the way to Vicenza. The temperature needs to rise gradually over a period of few days to reach the maximum and then come down equally gradually. Thus, the sculptures need to stay at the furnace for about a week.

She uses few colours in her work. About the use of colours, she said, "Sometimes I add a little colour after baking the sculpture in the furnace. At home I have a few with colours, but I prefer the natural look. Once, I tried to experiment by adding coloured glass pieces, which I had collected at a beach, it came out very beautiful. However, in the furnace, one of the glass pieces popped out and got into another sculpture, at the arm of the figure. I gave some colour around it and it looked like a bracelet on that sculpture."

Her sculptures mostly have women with elongated and tall bodies, a few are couples or children. She also likes to make sculptures of hands and feet, which were taught to her by a professor who use to teach art-history.

Regarding her process of giving form to her sculptures, she said, "With time and experience, I have changed and evolved as an artist. Earlier, I was inspired more by looking at the works of other artists. Now I use my own imagination. When I am sculpting, I am in my own world, I forget the world, and can spend hours without realising how many hours have passed. Sometimes, I start with an idea but while working, I change and modify the initial idea."

The artists who have inspired her include Bruno Lucchi, based in Levico Terme. She said, "I had seen his exhibition in Vicenza and had met him. He works a lot with horizontal lines and I have copied it from him. However, I also use a lot of vertical lines, which he does not.

In Conclusion

I think that Arcisa's story of discovering her passion for sculpting after visiting an art exhibition, is very inspiring to all those persons who discover their passions later in life.

I love the sculptures of Arcisa. In a recent exhibition held at Toaldi-Capra palace in the city centre of Schio, I saw some of her works showing couples and children, which I had not seen before. The elongated bodies of her sculptures express fragility and strength at the same time.

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