Antonio Frilli (born 1860 and died 1902) was a Florentine sculptor who specialized in marble and

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

statues for public and private customers.

Work

Marble Statue of Venus and Cupid by Antonio Frilli

In 1883, Frilli established his first and exclusive

Atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or v ...

in via dei Fossi,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, where he worked with a few assistants on medium-size refined painted alabasters and big white

Carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...

statues for private villas and monumental cemeteries. His works decorate famous cemeteries such as Porte Sante and Allori in Florence. A marble portrait of Frilli was carved in his Atelier after his death, and it was placed on his family tomb in

Cimitero degli Allori The Cimitero Evangelico agli Allori ("The Evangelical Cemetery at Laurels") is located in Florence, Italy, between 'Due Strade' and Galluzzo. History The small cemetery was opened in 1877 when the non-Catholic communities of Florence could no long ...

. Frilli and his gallery were well known in Europe, the United States and Australia, as he took part in several

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

exhibitions. He was in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

for the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

of 1876, and in 1881 his statues and garden furnitures were exhibited in the Italian Pavilion in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. In 1904, two years after Frilli's death, his son Umberto took part in the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri, where one of his father's works – a sculpture on a "Woman on a Hammock" in white Carrara marble – won the Grand Prize and 6 gold medals. In 1999, the same masterpiece was sold by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

with an auction estimate of $800,000. More recently, Frilli's 1892 sculpture "Sweet Dreams", which features a life-sized reclining nude in a hammock and which was exhibited at

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

in San Francisco in 1915, was sold at a Los Angeles auction house. A 2013 novel by Gary Rinehart, ''Nude Sleeping in a Hammock'', is a fictionalized account of the statue's owners since 1892 and how the sculpture affected their fortunes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frilli, Antonio 19th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 1902 deaths Alabaster 19th-century Italian male artists 1860 births

Work

See also

References