Reliefs at the Keppel Railway Station
Artist:
Angelo Vannetti Text of label:
Agriculture, Industry, Commerce, Transport
Patron:
Federated Malay States Railways
entry:
The April 8, 2011 press release from the URA and PMB (see comments), does prominently mention the Nolli sculptures:
«In particular, the landmark Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, a terminus for the railway line, stood out for its grand facade influenced by both the Neo-Classical and Art-Deco schools of architecture. It is fronted by four larger-than-life statues that individually represented the four economic pillars contributing to Malaya’s wealth – commerce, agriculture, transport and industry.»
For detailed photos, please see the NLB's photos here.
First Placed in Singapore:
1932
Current Location:
Keppel Railway Station, Tanjong Pagar - Add new comment
- 5688 reads
Comments
The Conclusion !
Here's the wrap-up to our whodunnit: decisive evidence of Vannetti's and Bigazzi's role, and a little surprise ! ;)
http://jusdeananas.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/an-art-history-mystery-the-b...
Fantastic!
Must add the lions now, and amend the entry on Vannetti and Bigazzi. I still think it's possible that Nolli was involved with the station in some manner, perhaps creating the architectural trim. But let's' leave that detail for another day and celebrate the fact that we can close on Vannetti as the author of this work.
That's some sleuth work,
That's some sleuth work, Jusdeananas! This is the sort of unravelling detective work that Giovanni Morelli or Erwin Panofsky would have been proud of and what the discipline of art history needs to recover. I would say that the findings are almost conclusive that Vannetti and Bigazzi are the creators of the sculptures, the triangulation of evidences that I said in an earlier post were needed. These new findings need to be published somewhere, preferably in a respectable or scholarly journal. With the recent buzz around the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, the media might be interested in the story as well. I think that the findings are one of great art historical significance in the context of Singapore in two ways. First, by debunking Nolli as the originator of the sculptures and second, by re-discovering Vannetti and Bigazzi which necessarily entails some revision of pre-war sculptural practice in Singapore - Jeffrey Say
Danke
Aw shucks, thanks ! High praise indeed. :) There's still a piece of the puzzle which remains unaccounted for, though: how Jon Lim came to believe Nolli the man responsible. Now that's something which I *really* would like to have cleared up ...
Jon Lim on Nolli
Finally had a look at Lim's article on Nolli: http://jusdeananas.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/an-art-history-mystery-the-l...
Re Jon Lim
Thanks for the close reading... you are persuasive on the point that the article really doesn't bring us any closer to understanding Nolli's contribution (if any) to the building and its facade. I do have a bit more perspective on Lim's work - I talked to him a few times about it, did some editing of one of his articles (not this one!) and I've read through his unpublished PhD thesis (one of the most well-worn volumes in the NUS thesis collection). I do think it's important to recognise that Lim was researching Singapore's architectural and design history long before anyone else seemed to care.
Jon Lim
Yeah, I wasn't very charitable towards Lim's work, but reading his piece on Nolli was really frustrating - it just seemed so .. shoddy. And now that we know there's a huge question mark hanging over the Tanjong Pagar sculptures, it wouldn't be unfair to say that he wasn't looking as closely as he should have, which to me at least detracts from his status as a pioneering scholar in the field. It's certainly not unheard of to be misled on dates and biographical details and stuff like that - those can be hard to pin down - but to miss two (or eight to be exact) large inscriptions and thus slip up on the very fundamental fact of authorship ... I just hope this article isn't representative of his scholarship in general !
Sabapathy's essay and Nolli's signature
Jusdeananas here again. Have posted updates: http://jusdeananas.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/an-art-history-mystery-chapt...
More Nolli
Thanks all for the comments and further postings!
Sculpture in Singapore was my main source for originally crediting this to Nolli, but the signatures certainly need to be explained at the very least. I'll keep the Vanetti and Bigazzi credit for now. The Nolli article by Jon Lim is quite an important article. He interviewed Nolli's family and I believe had access to his papers. As you mention in your post, I have read it, but I'm afraid I don't have a copy handy. If NUS Dept of Architecture would give us permission I'd be very pleased to post it here on publicart.sg. Lai Chee Kien is the anonymous poster who mentioned the "Italian chaps" - he may have more info.
There may well have been some relationship between Nolli and Vanetti and Bigazzi. Nolli had a well-established studio in Singapore from the early 20s through WWII. On the Nolli artist page I've linked to a couple of the more interesting images of Nolli on PICAS.
Jon Lim's article
No prob, glad you enjoyed reading the post ! I looked up the National Library's catalogue, and they do own a copy of that particular issue of the journal - it just needs to be recalled from their repository collection. Which is what I plan on doing, so hopefully we'll have a digital copy to refer to soon !
Angelo Vanetti and Raoul Bigazzi
Hey, Peter, the two chaps from Florence were passing through Malaya in 1929 and had several commissions including for Swan and Maclaren, cheers
Not Nolli! Tanjong Pagar reliefs by different Italian artists
Sometimes you the best plan is to look hard at an artwork! Blogger Seriously Sarah looked really hard and saw the signatures on the works. She published this one her blog, and jusdeananas expanded on this in his Long Durée blog. As jusdeananas points out. still plenty of questions to answer about Vanetti and Bigazzi, and their work at the Railway station. But at least we can all stop repeating the story that it's Nolli.
Dispute over the Tanjong Pagar reliefs
The evidence i.e. the signatures of Vannetti and Bigazzi, is certainly compelling but warrants further study and triangulation of other evidences.
It was indeed insightful that Jusdeananas has cited a Straits Times article which show that the two Italians visited Singapore in the early 1930s, something which my own research has missed. The authorship of the bas reliefs has never been entirely resolved. Still, Nolli is widely believed to be the originator of the reliefs. And this belief has been lent weight by several authoritative figures. Singapore's eminent art historian T.K. Sabapathy. in his essay for the exhibition catalogue "Sculpture in Singapore" (1991) attributes the reliefs to Nolli. The attribution to Nolli also appears in “Cavalori Rudolfo Nolli: A Sculptor and Entrepreneur.” Architecture Journal (1984): 10-17 by Dr Jon Lim, who was then a lecturer in the dept. of architecture at the NUS. It remains the only scholarly essay on Nolli's works in Singapore. He wrote that the station was a collaboration between Swan and Maclaren and Nolli, including the pylons which "provided the necessary association between sculpture and mass." He went on to say that "Nolli's four allegorical sculptures...exuded a formal sense of place between the architectural form and sculptural mass." Nolli's workshop did pre-cast and faux stonework for buildings. If he was involved in the architecture of the station, it was perhaps assumed that he also sculpted the four bas-reliefs.
The signature evidence is compelling but far from conclusive. More research is needed, which necessitates plowing through archival materials relating to Nolli as well as to Vannetti and Bigazzi before we can resolve the authorship of the bas reliefs. We also need to study the
form and style of the works of these sculptors to establish a stylistic connection with the Tanjong Pagar railway station reliefs.
- Jeffrey Say
Conclusive evidence ?
Hey all. Jusdeananas here, author of the aforementioned blog post. Didn't realize this was shaping up to be such a hot-button issue ... Thanks, Jeffrey and er, one of the "Anonymous"-es for pointing out where the Nolli attribution came from ! I'm definitely interested in tracking how both Sabapathy and Jon Lim believed Nolli the artist responsible for the Tanjong Pagar sculptures: specific references, stylistic comparisons, popular myth ? It may very well have been a case of one feeding off the work of the other - certainly not unheard of in academic circles. Sometimes chasing down every single "fact" just isn't feasible, or even wise ... Will have a gander at the Sabapathy essay soon and post something.
In the meantime, I have to respectfully disagree with Jeffrey: while he's right in saying that proper research is required to establish the details of the commission - not least of which is some kind of background on Vannetti & Bigazzi beyond the bare bones - I'd say that an inscription specifically naming an individual as "sculptor", quote unquote, is pretty darned conclusive. The one plausible exception would seem to be that Nolli was an apprentice responsible for the carving, while his master or masters got to slap his/their names on the work (not likely here though). Otherwise, barring deliberate vandalism and/or deception - e.g. Nolli doing the work and for some reason allowing Vannetti and Biggazzi to engrave their names on it in visible locations and large script, but again implausible - I can't recall an instance where retrospective stylistic correlations were sufficient in and of themselves to outweigh the direct significance of an inscription supplying both name AND role. And one that, in this case, seems to be repeated on all 4 works in the series. I could be wrong of course ... But, if anything though, I think the onus on any emerging research at this point would be a. to DIS-prove Vannetti & Bigazzi as the sculptors, rather than labouring to prove that they indeed are, and b. to flesh out the specifics, not bolster what, to me at least, seems to unequivocal documentation. After all, paper documents are just one form of authentication, and here we have names inscribed directly onto the pieces in question, and as Jeffrey himself words it, "If he [Nolli] was was involved in the architecture of the station, it was perhaps ASSUMED he also sculpted the four bas-reliefs (caps mine)." If indeed Nolli's purported authorship is also now viewed as an assumption, then my question is: why doesn't this conjecture operate to the benefit of those for whom we have material evidence (i.e. V & B) ? I guess my fundamental point may simply be one of phrasing - since I certainly agree with Jeffrey that work remains to be done - but I think a conclusion has more or less been reached, and what we need now are the particulars of that verdict.
Almost conclusive evidence
Jusdeananas has presented a credible argument here. The signatures are indeed substantive evidence of authorship. And I agree that, in light of the new findings, any further research should be intended to corroborate and validate the findings. So, at this point, if I were to write a caption for the reliefs, the artist names would be recorded as Vanetti and Bigazzi (?) rather than Rudolfo Nolli (?). The question mark remains until we can definitively and categorically say that Vanetti and Bigazzi are the creators of the works. It would be interesting to find out what sources Mr Sabapathy and Dr Jon Lim referenced in their essays as they attributed the sculptures to Nolli without any qualifications. - Jeffrey
puzzled
So even though the base of each of the sculptures clearly states "Angelo Vanetti Sculptor 1931", we can't take this as proof of authorship? Why not?
More evidence needed
It is compelling evidence but we need more evidence to establish once and for all that they were done by Vanetti and Bigazzi. The signature is just one piece of the puzzle. If Nolli was involved in the architecture of the Tanjong Pagar station, then we need to determine the extent to which he was also involved in the production of the bas reliefs, if he was involved at all. There are questions about the reliefs that are still unanswered and, hopefully, these can be unravelled through further research. Let's just say that the attribution to Nolli as the originator of the works has now been considerably weakened but documented and stylistic evidence are needed to establish this. - Jeffrey Say
Zoomed in on the artists
Great to have the zoom lens and cameras these days! Thanks for the new discoveries!
The sculptures were credited to Nolli in this publication "Sculpture in Singapore", 1991, see page 20-21.
http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?fullRecord+6152+3002+6307024+...
Who made the Nee Soon statues?
Some people in Yishun referred to the bronze statues of Lim Nee Soon as "the one by SDP" and "the one by PAP"
http://www.publicart.sg/?q=Lim-Nee-Soon-I
How many people know the Sculptors: The Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Research Institute, Chen Gu-Kui, Wang Zhi-Qiang, Wu Hui-Ming?
Could Nolli be the real designer but not the stone carver of the Tanjong Pagar sculptures?
Railway building gazetted a national monument
The reliefs will be preserved. News of the gazetting was announced in a URA/PMB press release "Historic railway stations to be kept for future generations" on Friday, April 8th. It was covered in today's papers (see Today, April 9, 2011, "Different routes for two railway stations?").
PMB should share some light on the artists of the sculptures
Could the Preservation of Monuments Board share some light on the true artists of the sculptures fronting the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station?
share the light...
Well, of course it would be nice if PMB had some research to share, but the entire premise of publicart.sg is that the concerned public can gather and collate information about public art, and do so in a way that is more meaningful than the work of any government body.
Clarification
The press release by PMB mentions the sculptures, but does not attribute them to Nolli. That's because they are not by Nolli, but by Angelo Vanetti and Raoul Bigazzi. You can see the inscriptions of these 2 names on the sides of the base of the sculptures (note, not bas reliefs)
Relief Sculptures
These sculptures are in high relief, not in the round or free-standing. Yes, it would not be accurate to call them bas relief, which is low relief. - Jeffrey