History
(marble busts, marble busts, portraits, terracotta)
Leonardo Bistolfi and Francesco Messina were my teachers. It was my father Urbano, however,
who was my master in real life.
I was born in 1959 and grew up in Pietrasanta, a town in the province of Lucca in Tuscany.
Today I work in the studio that my father left me years ago.
The artistic environment of Pietrasanta is so comprehensive that it has become one of the
most important centers of sculpture in the world.
No other place of artistic interest can boast a greater number of marble workshops or an even
higher concentration of bronze foundries anywhere in Italy or Europe.
I live and work at the heart of these vital centers which, besides giving me great satisfaction, offer a
unique opportunity to work with a variety of experts, the master sculptor in
marble, the caster in plaster, the foundryman and the master mosaicist.
In these favourable surroundings I can express myself freely without any obstacles of a
technical character.
After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara in Sculpture, I have taken part in
numerous collective exhibitions from Tuscany to Emilia-Romagna.
In 1991 my father modelled some sculptures for Jeff Coons, Andy Warhol’s famous pupil. I had the
interesting experience of modeling one of them. On that occasion I also had the privilege to having
the famous actress Ilona Staller as my model.
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In 1996 I created a monument to the "Blind Guide-Dog" placed at the Scandicci National School for
blind guide-dogs for the Tuscany Region.
In 1997 I created the National Monument for the "Blood and Organ Donor"
(photo) which is located at the
Madonna Del Monte Sanctuary near Mulazzo in Tuscany.
By the end of the same year I was elected to membership in the National Sculpture Society of
the United States of America.
In 1998 I created the monument to Pope John Paul II
(photo)
placed in the Archepiscopal Seminary of Salerno and inaugurated the next year on 4th September by
the Pope himself.
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Soon after I created a small bronze statue of the actor Antonio de Curtis, known by everyone as Totò.
His daughter Liliana approved it enthusiastically after her visit to my workshop.
I presented it to her for the Museum to Totò dedicated by the city of Naples.
Later I made a maquette of Totò
(photo) which was entered in a
competition organized by the Town Council of that city.
In 1999 I created the monument to Father Lorenzo, a founder of the Sisters of the Carmelite Order located in Santa
Marinella near Civitavecchia.
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I have made a number of busts such as Ronald Reagan’s
(photo), Michail Gorbaciov’s and Lamberto Vallarino Gancia’s, two copies of the latter in bronze,
(photo) the first of them placed in the Asti-Gancia club-hall and the second one in the town-hall of Canelli (Asti).
Recently I also put a bronze bust of Sherlock Holmes (photo) into the town-hall at Sesto Fiorentino (Florence).
In 2000 I modelled Gina Lollobrigida’s 5 metre+ statue of Esmeralda inspired by the character she played in the film "Notre Dame de Paris".
My works are represented in private collections in Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland and Germany.
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I have a predilection for the portrait. My father was an excellent portrait sculptor.
It is not an exageration to claim that he made thousands of them and I think I have inherited his natural talent.
I am often commissioned to create portraits, many of which are of persons already deceased.
Usually, all the information I can get with regard to their features is drawn from inferior-quality photos.
Nevertheless I quite often manage fine results.
I can make busts or portraits in different materials: marble, bronze, Terra Cotta, etc.
When not working on commision, the subjects I like best to model, draw their roots from the realistic
art of the 19th century.
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In fact, I have been the closest pupil’s pupil of Leone Tommasi, a talented
sculptor working in Pietrasanta in the last century and educated in the foremost 19th-century-school
of realism, the Academy of the Brera in Milan.
However, I feel profoundly close to one of the last of the great styles which left a mark
in the history of art: the "Liberty" style
(photo A -
photo B -
photo C -
photo D -
photo E -
photo F).
In brief, what I wish to arrive at is an approach to "figurative" sculpture and the "Liberty" style,
bringing into prominance the former in comparison to the latter.
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