Ermenegildo Luppi (1877–1937) was an Italian sculptor. Born in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, Luppi studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown under sculptor Giuseppe Gibellini. He moved to Rome in 1901, studying under Ettore Ferrari, and began exhibiting around 1903. After continuing his education in Florence in 1906 and 1907, Luppi returned to Rome permanently in 1907. Winning increasingly important government commissions, Luppi graduated from producing freestanding statues for exhibition into architectural sculpture and war memorials. A tendency towards Fascist imagery and style is clear in his mid-1920s memorials for Modena and

Avezzano Avezzano ( or ; nap, Avezzàne, label=Neapolitan language, Marsicano ) is a city and ''comune'' with a population of 40,819 inhabitants, situated in the Abruzzo region, province of L'Aquila, Italy. It is the second most populous municipality in th ...

, both with powerful central figures of Victory. Political content becomes explicit in 1934 at the Palazzo del Podestà, now the City Hall of

Foggia Foggia (, , ; nap, label= Foggiano, Fògge ) is a city and former ''comune'' of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known ...

, where Luppi contributed two sculpted exterior panels which both feature a muscular

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

in heroic poses. Among other honors, Luppi was made a commander of the

Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( it, Ordine della Corona d'Italia, italic=no or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civi ...

and was elected to the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

. He died in 1937.

Work

Luppi's work includes: * exterior frieze ''Corteo della Bellezza e della Forza'', for the

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna The ("national gallery of modern and contemporary art"), also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then Minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contempora ...

building, Rome, architect

Cesare Bazzani Cesare Bazzani (1873 - 1939) was a prominent and prolific Italian architect and engineer. Active from 1911 until his death in 1939, Bazzani designed major municipal works in several cities. Works * Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (National L ...

(1911) * ''Pieta'', Cimitero di Brescia,

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

(1922) * ''Monument to the Fallen of Modena in the First World War'', along Viale Martiri della Libertà, Modena (1923–1926; unveiled 1929) * ''Monumento ai Caduti'' in

(1925–1928) * seven of the historical busts in the gardens of the Janiculum, Rome (Gabriele Martucci della Spada, Luigi Miceli, Paolo Narducci, Domenico Piva,

Ricciotti Garibaldi Ricciotti Garibaldi (24 February 1847 – 17 July 1924) was an Italian soldier, the fourth son of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Anita Garibaldi. Biography Born in Montevideo, he was named in honour of who had been executed during the failed expeditio ...

, Bernardino Serafini, and Augusto Valenzani, completed between 1925 and 1937)http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ermenegildo-luppi_(Dizionario_Biografico)/ (Italian language) * ''Dublin Lamentation'',

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland, with sculptor A. Gardini (1930) * ''Mussolini panels'', Palazzo del Podestà,

, for architect

Armando Brasini Armando Brasini (Rome, 21 September 1879 - Rome, 18 February 1965) was a prominent Italian architect and urban designer of the early twentieth century and exemplar of Fascist architecture. His work is notable for its eclectic and visionary style i ...

(1932) * ''Angel of Memory'': a ten-foot-tall white marble statue by Luppi stands in the "Great Mausoleum" of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, close to the grave of

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

Gallery

File:MO-Modena-1945-monumento-caduti.jpg, Modena war memorial File:Monumento ai Caduti Avezzano 30 settembre 2015.jpg, Avezzano war memorial File:Cimitero monumentale Vantiniano gruppo Pietà di Ermenegildo Luppi Brescia.jpg, Pietà in the monumental cemetery in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luppi, Ermenegildo 1877 births 1937 deaths 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists Italian male sculptors Painters from Rome Artists from Modena