Sculptors

Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen are considered by many to be two of the greatest sculptors of the neoclassical era.  Born two decades after Canova, Thorvaldsen became Canova's heir apparent after his death in 1822.  It is my hope to discover what led these two men who lived very similar lives to create neoclassical sculpture.

Antonio Canova was born in the little town of Possagno on November 11, 1757.  His father was a stonecutter who died when Antonio was only four years old.  His mother remarried within a year, and sent Antonio to live with his grandfather – also a stonecutter.  It was with his grandfather that Antonio first began working with the medium that would make him famous.  At the age of eleven Antonio was apprenticed to the sculptor Giuseppi Bernardi after showing great artistic potential.  He traveled with Bernardi to Venice where his career and life as a sculptor would begin.  Any time not spent working with Bernardi was devoted to studying the classical works in the Farsetti Gallery and attending the nude drawing classes at night at the Accademia.  In 1775, two years after the death of Bernardi, Canova produced his first important classical work – a copy of the ancient Wrestlers group for a competition.  His growing reputation led to an invitation to accompany Venice's Ambassador to Rome on his journey back to the Eternal City.

He arrived in Rome on November 4, 1779.  He very soon began studying, as Qutremère de Quincy described it, the "museum of Rome".  He studied the ancient works in private collections throughout the city in addition to the city itself.  He was greatly influenced by the works and ideas of the Germans Meng and Winkelmann.  It was these two first great Greek scholars' ideas that would shape Canova's works.  Before heading to Rome he supposedly said in a conversation to the Ambassador to Rome that an artist did not need to study ancient works, but instead should be inspired by nature.  This statement led to a rather cold reception in Rome, where copying and studying ancient works was the modus operandi of all aspiring artists.  He was later to rescind that statement and clarify that he was just against the mechanical imitation, and wanted to invent, not copy.

The Maine Memorial, Central Park NYC, Atillio Piccirilli, sculptor

The Piccirilli Brothers were a family of renowned marble carvers who carved a large number of the most significant marble sculptures in the United States, including Daniel Chester French’s colossal Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

In 1888, Giuseppe Piccirilli (1844-1910), a well-known stone carver, brought his family to New York from Massa di Carrara, in Tuscany, Italy. The entire family, father and six sons -- Feirrucio (1864- ), Attilio Piccirilli (1866-1945), Furio (1868-1949), Masaniello (1870-1951), Orazio (1872-1954) and Getulio (1874-1956) -- were trained as marble cutters and carvers.

Although the Piccirilli Brothers were known primarily as architectural modelers and the carvers of other sculptors’ works, both Attilio and Furio developed names for themselves as sculptors independent of the family.

The family lived at 467 East 142nd Street in the Bronx and set up their workshop next to their home. Over the years their atelier grew until it eventually had encompassed the whole block.

At that time most prominent sculptors would create their original work in clay. From that clay model a caster would generate a plaster model. The model would then be sent to the Piccirilli Brothers who would carve it from stone, typically marble, although limestone and granite where also used. The brothers became the carvers of choice for a large number of American sculptures of the time including Daniel Chester French and Paul Wayland Bartlett.

Statue of Donatello outside the Uffizi, Florence

Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi) (1386 – December 13, 1466) was a famous Florentine artist and sculptor of the early Renaissance.
 

Early years

Donatello was the son of Nicolo di Betto Bardi, a member of the Florentine Woolcombers Guild, and was born in Florence, probably in 1386. Donatello was educated in the house of the Martelli family. However, he received his first training (according to the custom of the period) in a goldsmith's workshop, and then he worked for a short time in Lorenzo Ghiberti's studio. While pursuing studies and excavations with Filippo Brunelleschi in Rome, which gained them the reputation of treasure seekers, the two men made a living by working at the goldsmiths' shops. This Roman sojourn was decisive for the entire development of Italian art in the 15th century, for it was during this period that Brunelleschi undertook his measurements of the Pantheon dome and of other Roman buildings. Brunelleschi's buildings and Donatello's monuments are the supreme expressions of the spirit of this era in architecture and sculpture, and exercised a potent influence upon the painters of the age.