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Lasting Effect. The show closes at the end of August, but a number of souvenirs will remain in Spoleto as a permanent reminder of the summer when 106 works by 52 sculptors enlivened its streets and piazzas. David Smith has donated a circle pierced by a swirling, wavelike bar, supported by a pair of pincers ("It has more grace than most of my work, so I thought it belonged there"); Lynn Chadwick's batlike, three-legged Stranger III will remain on the ramp leading up from the duomo; Nino Franchini's leaping spire of torn steel will stay on the spot where it was made, a cleft between two ancient houses.
Still under construction this week is the piece that caps the whole show: Alexander Calder's permanent contribution.
After being asked to make a mobile, the sculptor sent detailed sketches with a note saying, "I am sending you a stabile." Calder's "stabile" consists of an arch 59 ft. high and 49 ft. wide, weighing 30 tons and looming over the town's northern entrance. It rates the title of largest piece of modern metal sculpture in the world.
When welding is complete, it could cost more to remove than it cost to make. So it, too, will stay in Spoleto.
It seems likely that the Spoleto show will have a lasting effect. It has proved once and for all to Italians that there is something more interesting to look at in the way of outdoor sculpture than the pompous equestrian statues of Victor Emmanuel II, which clutter up many of their piazzas. The naked use of common industrial methods to produce sculpture has stripped away much of the mystery of the craft, has humanized what had been before a less than generally appreciated art form. Last week an ironmonger who had been hired to fasten steel straps around the bases of several statues said confidently: "I think I'll make some sculptures myself."