Transnational networks of Italian sculpture in the Chilean space (19th–20th centuries)

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the role of cultural mediation played by Italian sculpture in Chile between 1829 and 1929. Based on a transnational approach, we examine the artistic circulation networks that connected Italy and Chile, highlighting how sculpture became a privileged vehicle for the transmission of visual repertoires, techniques, and symbolic values. Our research focuses on the macro-areas identified as the main channels for the diffusion of Italian sculpture in America, adapted here to the Chilean case: public monuments, sacred, funerary and industrial sculpture, education, museums, and exhibitions. Drawing on primary sources gathered from archives in both countries, we consider sculpture as a form of symbolic and cultural agency capable of articulating national identities and collective memories. According to our interpretation, Italian sculpture, far from being understood merely as an artistic object, functioned as a vehicle of modernity and cultural legitimation, contributing to the construction of new national narratives in nineteenth-century post-independence Chile.