Melpomene

Romolo Del Deo

Melpomene
Romolo Del Deo
Bronze with marble base, 20’ high. Made in Italy. Installed 2002.
Nat Turner Boulevard and Walt Whitman Avenue, Port Warwick

 “Fragmented, twisted, broken, yet always heroic and beautiful despite their travail. The figures of Romolo Del Deo are rooted in classical mythology and romantic ideal. But in their compromised poses, they also indicate a contemporary, post-modern vantage point.” This is how an art expert, writing in Arts and Antiques, described the work of this American sculptor with Italian roots. The mythology in this piece refers to Melpomene, the muse of tragedy.

This piece illustrates the connections that artists make between their work and its context. Del Deo was inspired to choose Melpomene because the piece is set in a mixed-use development named Port Warwick, for the fictional city in Lie Down in Darkness, the tragic novel by Newport News native William Styron. Styron was involved in selecting the American authors and the characters in his books for whom Port Warwick’s streets are named.

The “compromised pose” described by the art critic is evident in Melpomene: The draping and figure are classical, but the head is missing, as is a wing. Del Deo explains that his sculptures “all start out as whole figures,” but “You’ve got to get rid of the extraneous elements, anything that gets in the way of the thing itself.”

 

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