Gaetano Trentanove

Gaetano Trentanove (February 21, 1858 – March 13, 1937) was an Italian and American sculptor.

Biography

Trentanove was born in Florence, Italy, a goldsmith's son. He studied at the Florentine Academy; he was later named honorary scholar of this academy and Parma. Trentanove had an active early career in Italy. He completed ''Gaddo movente'' (his first work), awarded a gold medal by the Società Promotrice delle Belle Arti. He completed both a full size statue for his palace and a funereal monument for Count Alfredo Serristori for the cemetery of Figline. He sculpted the sculptural group ''Tito Vezio e Licena''. he sculpted the monument of Signora Fraschetti, placing a crown of flowers on the tomb of her husband in San Miniato. He completed many portrait busts including one of Federigo Campanella. He designed a statue raised on the loggie of the Mercato Nuovo of Florence.

Trentanove opened a studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a result of friendships made in Paris. His initial contact with Milwaukee was made as a student when William E. Cramer, the editor of the Evening Wisconsin, visited Giovanni Dupre's studio, where Trentanove was studying. For the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Trentanove sculpted the ''Otriade or Last of the Spartans'', a large white Carrara marble statue. When the Chicago fair closed, Cramer purchased the Spartan statue for the Layton Art Gallery in Milwaukee.Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer (1995). ''Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook'', p. 154. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison Trentanove thus became a regular visitor to Milwaukee and taught classes at the Layton Art Gallery.

Trentanove subsequently acquired American citizenship and although he spent a portion of every year in Florence, where the foundry that cast his models in bronze was located,Foundry inscription on bronze ''Tadeusz Kosciuszko'', Cleveland
. he passed most of the remainder of his life in Milwaukee. In 1897 Trentanove was created a knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy. After retirement, he returned to Italy where he died.

Trentanove's public monuments are more easily located than his portrait sculptures, figural sculptures and decorative sculpture.

Selected works

* 1889 ''Victor Hugo'', shown at the Exposition Universelle (1889), Paris. Now at Gallery of Modern Art, Florence.
* 1892 '' The Last of the Spartans'', Milwaukee Art Museum. Purchased at the Esposizione di Belle Arti, Parma, by William Cramer and donated in 1893 to the Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee.

* 1896 '' Father Jacques Marquette'', National Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
* 1897 '' Father Jacques Marquette'', public statue at Marquette, Michigan
* 1898 ''Bust of Peter White'' Peter White Public Library, Marquette, Michigan
* 1900 ''Daniel Webster'' for the Daniel Webster Memorial, Scott Circle, Washington, D.C.
* 1901 '' Brigadier General Albert Pike'' , Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C.. Pulled from its plinth by protestors and set alight on June 19, 2020
* 1904 ''Tadeusz Kościuszko'', Cleveland Museum of Art
* 1904 ''Andrew Carnegie'' bust for Carnegie Library in Atlanta, Georgia. Now in lobby of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System's Central Library.
* 1905 '' General Thaddeus Kosciuszko'', Kosciuszko Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* 1907 '' Father Jacques Marquette'', public statue at Marquette Park (Mackinac Island)
* ''Giovanni Villani'' for a niche of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo, Florence.
* ''Soldiers' Monument'', Oshkosh, Wisconsin
* ''Governor Nelson Dewey'', Lancaster, Wisconsin
* ''President McKinley'', Somerville, New Jersey
* ''Oshkosh'', commemorating the treaty with the Menominee

References

Omaggio a Gaetano Trentanove
Exhibition, Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Florence, December 2005

A Commemorative History of the Oshkosh Public Library Lions

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trentanove, Gaetano
1858 births
1937 deaths
Sculptors from Florence
Italian emigrants to the United States
Artists from Milwaukee
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
19th-century American sculptors
19th-century American male artists
American male sculptors
Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze alumni
Sculptors from Wisconsin