Early years

Rosa D'Amore, photographed by Vincenzo Galdi at the end of 19th century

Galdi was born in Naples on October 11, 1871. His father Vincenzo was one of the descendants of an ancient Italian noble house with title of baron, one of whose ancestors was a Norman knight, who participated in liberation of Salerno from the Saracens. He belonged to a branch, which in the middle of the eighteenth century had settled in Marigliano and inherited the title of Castelan of Ischia and Procida, as well as Lord of Corleone in Sicily. Elder Vincenzo was a banker and owner of a hat factory. Vincenzo Galdi's mother, Rosa D'Amore, was the sister of the mayor of Marigliano.^[2]

Naples

Poster of the show "I Cammorristi nel Carcere della Vicaria",in which Galdi played the role of Aniello, performed on stage in 1890 at the Theater Folly of Naples.

Vincenzo Galdi enrolled in the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples. During his studies he was especially impressed with optics and photographic technique, even building a wooden camera with a telescopic lens by himself. As a student he worked at the studio of Giorgio Sommer at his photographic studio on Via Monte di Dio.^[3] He started to study with German photographer Guglielmo Plüschow, who had a studio in Naples in 1886 or 1887. As he was strikingly good-looking, Galdi also modeled for Plüschow at that time. Starting from 1887, and until 1890, the young Galdi also worked in theater as a set designer, instrumentalist and actor with the Eduardo Scarpetta's company and then with Alberto Cozzella and Vincenzo Esposito. But the economic default of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the decline of Naples art scene led Galdi to leave his homeland and move to Rome with Guglielmo Plüschow.^[3]

Rome

When he arrived in Rome in 1890, Galdi bought a penthouse with terrace on Via Sardegna 55 in the new Ludovisi district, still suburban at that time, where he was going to live with her older sister Eutilia. He opened a studio on Via Campania 45 – not far from his apartment – specializing in feminine and masculine nude art, becoming soon the most well-known author of the time in that genre after von Gloeden and Plüschow. He also produced portraits and some of his photographs were sold as postcards. The Via Campania studio also worked as an experimental an art gallery.

When Plüschow decided to move to Rome around 1895 himself, he took residence in the same street as Galdi (at number 34). The two continued their collaboration, started in Naples. This fact is documented by a letter by Theodore F. Dwight, director of the Boston Public Library, sent in January 1896 in which he described his visit to the studio of the photographer:

"Plüschow was not present in person, but his assistant was and I was given every pleasure to see his collection, apparently without you expecting me to buy it. While we were talking, the beautiful Italian, with black hair and mustache, a rather vigorous build and wide shoulders, over the age of 24, who seemed anxious to be to noted and acted as a master of the place? I asked and learned that it was Vincenzo Galdi, the model of many of our photos. He laid for those in which he sat on the wall, with a band around his head, and along with Edoardo, the most beautiful, 17 in an infinite number of other photos. I told him that I know him from the tip of his feet to the top of his head and he immediately became very talkative, showing me all his preferred poses. We have established such friendly relationships as I have now the privilege of taking pictures in the studio of Plüschow and of the Plüschow models."^[4]

The partnership with Plüschow lasted probably until 1902, given that the following year he moved his own study to Corso Umberto 333, where he worked with two assistants: Pietro Magnotti and Enrico Simoncini. Among the photographs attributed to Galdi are a series of shots commissioned by English painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson, depicting Carlo, his young lover from Taormina, whom he adopted. The photographs bear the stamp of Galdi with the address of via Sardegna 55 and are dated 1906.

In 1902, Galdi married Virginia Guglielmi (12 April 1885 – 24 May 1941), an elementary school teacher. They had three children together: Ernesto Theodor (b. 1903), Vincenzo (b. 1904), named Vincenzino, and Michelangelo (b. 1917).

The scandal of the Naiads fountain

Vincenzo Galdi (left) and Mario Rutelli (right) outside the sculptor's studio in via Margutta. The photo created with the self-timer in 1901.

When the sculptor Mario Rutelli received a commission to renew the 'Naiads fountain' on Piazza della Repubblica he collaborated with Galdi. They met at one of masonic lodges, to which Galdi and Rutelli belonged. Galdi had just returned from Paris, where he visited exhibition of Rodin, and was describing the great art of French sculptor, when Rutelli blurted out: "Vincenzo, I want new models, I'll show you what Rodin has conceived in a dark museum. I'm Sicilian and I will put my own statues in a bath of light so that they will look alive." Galdi procured the models and photographed them, finding shots suitable for his ideas and those of the Mario Rutelli. The sculptor created casts from these nude photographs of pagan nymphs, which immediately created outrage in conservative circles. The question was raised at the session of the City Council, during which some clerics and conservative opponents, offended by the proud nudity of the naiads, asked the Mayor for immediate removal of the statues from the fountain. Instead, the city council decided to simply cover the fountain with a fence in order to prevent the public from seeing the statues. One councilor asked to start an investigation against Galdi and Rutelli. Photographs and drawings were seized. All ended up in the press with Avanti defending the sculptures and L'Osservatore Romano judging them as "a gross", criticizing them sharply from an artistic and moral point of view. The situation was resolved spontaneously one night when a group of students destroyed the fence, thereby opening the monument to the public.

Death

Vincenzo Galdi died in Rome on December 20, 1961, in Zappalà clinic, where he had been hospitalized with prostate cancer. He was buried on the 23rd of the same month on the cemetery of Verano, near his wife Virginia, who had died in 1941.

Photographs of Vincenzo Galdi by Guglielmo Plüschow

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  A very young Vincenzo Galdi in Plueschow's garden at Posillipo
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  Vincenzo Galdi before a mock-door on an Ancient Roman grave, at Pompeii.
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  Portrait of Vincenzo Galdi (1895 ca)
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  Portrait of Vincenzo Galdi (1895 ca.), wearing a turbant
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  Edoardo and Vincenzo Galdi. The reverse bears the caption: "Naples".
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  Portrait of Vincenzo Galdi (1895 ca.), wearing a turbant
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  Classic nude portrait of Vincenzo Galdi (1895 ca), at Mergellina, located on the hill of Posillipo
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  Classic scene. The model at centre is Vincenzo Galdi. The picture is taken in the garden at Rampa di Posillipo 55
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  Portrait of Vincenzo Galdi (1895 ca.)
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  Vincenzo Galdi as a boy sitting on a lararium at Pompeii
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  Two youth on a shore. Although identification may be controversial, the youth on the right might be Vincenzo Galdi as an adult (1900 ca.)
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  Edoardo and another boy (possibly a very young Vincenzo Galdi) in Plueschow's garden at Posillipo.