Amedeo ModiglianiItalian, 1884–1920Head
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
Minneapolis Institute of Art
RoomG367Minneapolis, United States
On public display.
- Checked
- 2 days ago
- In this state since
- Sep 25, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the sculpture
A protaganist of the vibrant artistic community in Paris around 1910, the Italian Amedeo Modigliani sought to establish a new sculptural language, inspired significantly by African and ancient Greek and Egyptian examples. The present Head was one of seven that were exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in October 1912. A few months earlier, it was photographed in the artist's studio - which makes it one of his best-documented works. Modigliani intended for the heads to be parts of 'columns of tenderness' within a primordial 'temple of beauty' that remained unrealized. According to the account of his close friend Jacob Epstein, Modigliani used to place candles on top of these heads during the night. Spurred on by marijuana, he would give the totemic, illuminated sculptures affectionate embraces.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 62.73.1
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art: the museum's own open data · fetched 6 days ago
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
Meanwhile, in the life of Amedeo Modigliani
The whole lifeApril 1909
Montparnasse, Brâncuși and sculpture
In April 1909 Modigliani moves into a studio in Montparnasse and meets the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, who will have an enormous influence on him. For a time he prefers sculpture to painting; it was even said that he stole stone blocks and wooden railway sleepers for his sculptures from the construction sites of the metro.
March – May 1910
The 1910 Salon des Indépendants
Modigliani takes part in the 26th Salon des Indépendants in Paris.
spring 1910 – August 1911
The affair with Anna Akhmatova
In the spring of 1910 Modigliani meets the young Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, five years his junior; their passionate infatuation lasts until August 1911, after which they never meet again. Akhmatova takes 16 portraits of herself back to Russia.
1911
The “Pillars of Tenderness” and the plan for a “Temple of Beauty”
In 1911 Modigliani exhibits stone sculpted heads, his “pillars of tenderness”, in the studio of the Portuguese artist Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. It is then that he conceives the idea of a “Temple of Beauty”, for which he develops the caryatid motif.
1912
Sculpted heads at the Salon d’Automne
In 1912 Modigliani shows seven sculpted heads at the Salon d’Automne, and some of them are even bought. There he meets the sculptors Jacob Epstein and Jacques Lipchitz.
spring 1913
Livorno: marble by the quarry
Modigliani spends the spring of 1913 in Livorno, living near a quarry: his letters to Paul Alexandre suggest that he works in marble and sends the finished sculptures to Paris, but no marble sculpture has survived.
