Favourtite artists of the owner of Villa la Madonnina

Villa Madonnina: OUR FAVORITE LOCAL ARTISTS

Here we feature two local artist: Paulo Sandulli and Francesco Mangieri (Mao)

PAOLO SANDULLI:

Paolo is working in the Saracen tower you can see from Villa la Madonnina.

It is worthwhile visiting him and watch him at his work, talk with him
and if you like his works buy a painting or terracotta sculpture. He ships worldwide. You can see some of his earlier works in the villa.
Many of his terracotta cotta pieces show people or scenes he sees around him. So he made a series of heads portraying local fishermen many of them with characteristic, impressing faces. Unfortunately some of the fishermen did not like this, though non of them ever visited him to see their portrays. Two of them don't greet him anymore.
Paolo made also a series of heads of girls which serve as a pot for different plants. See one of them, which you find in the villa, below. We also have several paintings and other small sculptures in the villa.
A nice collection of the girls with the plants on the head you find in the garden of the five starr hotel Pallazzo Murat in Positano.


Paolo s studio	Girl with plant	Different works

See a nice collection of his paintings and sculptures on this website: Paolo Sandulli
Contact information: Paolo Sandulli, Torre a Mare, 84010 Praiano, Tel +390 8987 4149 or 3394 401008.

MAO (Francesco Mangieri):
Mao

Mao makes exquisite sculptures from ancient pieces of marble or from fragmens of dropstones. He has an interesting history as an artist. In his life he had different occupations, like a merchant or antique dealer. In one of his jobs he was working as a bricklayer. His boss saw his talent working with stone and encouraged him to do an ornamental work. He himself found his new passion and many people liked and bought his works. Now he is fully focusing on his art - as much health allows. His name derives from his political position many years ago.

When he sees a piece of stone he let himself inspire by the shape and structure of the material to decide what piece is inside. He often chooses topics connected with the history of Amalfi or magic figures when he combines for instance Poseidon (Nettuno) the god of the sea with fishes.
There is a nice museum displaying his works. Unfortunately it is closed as a result of a rift with the community. He also had to remove pieces of this from the walls of the houses on the way leading to the museum. To a big part it was the result of a political dispute between the left and the right wing in the community. Its a pity because the museum is in a nice location and also gives a nice overview over the works he has made. You can see him often working in front of a shop close to the arsenal in Amalfi. In the shop some of his works are also for sale. If you are interested to visit the museum you can ask Mao if he can make it possible. If somebody is available to accompany you then he will most likely agree. But its his personal decision. He also does not sell to everybody. He told me that he does not sell to people from Amalfi (reason see above) and bankers (for other reasons which I don't know). Two of his works you find in the villa. Both are in the drawing room, one is shown in the first row of pictures below at the right. (Nettuno). If you buy a piece the shop can ship it to any location in the world.

Some examples of MAO's sculptures:


Jovis	Jovis	Nettuno

King and Queen	Netuno with his fishes	Fiction animal with heads