Girolamo Masini (December 29, 1840 – 1885) was an Italian sculptor.
Biography
He was born in
Florence,
Tuscany, where he studied with
Aristodemo Costoli
Aristodemo Costoli (1803–1871) was an Italian sculptor who spent his entire career in the city of Florence. His students included Emilio Zocchi, Girolamo Masini, Augusto Rivalta and his son Leopoldo Costoli.
Partial anthology of works
Flo ...
. Masini's most prominently-sited work is the bronze statue of
Cola di Rienzi (1877) on the left of the stairs leading to the
Campidoglio,
Rome. Contemporary bronze reductions of it were made.
Masini, a minor member of the
Romantic realists of the generation that reacted to the cool
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
of
Canova, taught at the
Accademia di San Luca, Rome, where among his pupils were
Ernesto Biondi and
Attilio Piccirilli
Attilio Piccirilli (May 16, 1866 – October 8, 1945) was an American sculptor. Born in Massa, Italy, he was educated at the Accademia di San Luca of Rome.
Life and career
Piccirilli came to the United States in 1888 and worked for his fa ...
, later of New York.
A marble seated ''Ruth'' exhibits the realist attention to minor details and the sentimental aura of Masini's style. Another of his works, ''Fabiola'' is in the Museum of Modern Art in Rome.
Masini exhibited at the
Esposizione Internazionale (1874) in Rome. The same year he finished for the commune of
Gropello Cairoli (province of Pavia) a standing figure of Donna Adelaide Bono Cairoli, mother of five patriot sons, memorialized by the comune as five columns round a fountain.
In
Hamburg, Masini executed the mourning female figure on the Zimmer tomb at
Ohlsdorf Main Cemetery (Hauptfriedhof Ohlsdorf
Masini died in Florence in 1885.
References
*Lombardo, Josef Vincent, ''Atilio Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor'', Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York 1944
*Mackay, James, ''The Dictionary of Sculptors in Bronze'', Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England 1995
External links
La sculptura italiana: ottocento
{{DEFAULTSORT:Masini, Girolamo
1840 births
1885 deaths
Sculptors from Florence
19th-century Italian sculptors
Italian male sculptors
Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery
19th-century Italian male artists