Giuseppe Antonio Plura (died 18 March 1756), better known in England as Joseph Plura (sometimes suffixed "the elder" on account of his son Joseph Plura Junior also being a sculptor), was an Italian sculptor who later moved to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, England.

Biography

Early life

Joseph was born the son of

Carlo Giuseppe Plura Carlo Giuseppe Plura (3 January 1663 - 14 April 1737) was a Swiss-Italian stucco artist and sculptor. He was born in Lugano and died in Borgo San Dalmazzo. Like him, his son Joseph Plura, Giuseppe Antonio Plura the Elder and Joseph Plura Junior, ...

(1663–1737), a well known Turinese sculptor, and was part of a family of Turinese sculptors. Little is known about his early life. It is thought that he is the Plura that was noted as being an assistant to

Stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ist Giovanni Bagutti (1681–?) in the work on Castle Howard in Yorkshire between 1709 and 1712 where it suspected they were working in order to attempt to gain the commissions to perform the sculpture work on the rebuilding of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

in London, but they were unsuccessful in this regard and he probably returned to Italy when work on Castle Howard was completed. It is also said that he probably trained at the Carlo Emanuele III Sculpture Academy as well as in Paris, but as Carlo Emanuele III was crowned in 1730 it is likely that this academy was founded when Plura was already a trained sculptor.

Later career

Not much is further know about his life until about 1747 where he had taken on a commission in Madrid to teach the son of

King Fernando VI , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Savoy , birth_date = 23 September 1713 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Madrid, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Villavici ...

about sculpture. In 1748 however he had a disagreement with the contractor who had employed him to teach the prince, reputed because he was not getting paid and he subsequently left Spain. He is next recorded in 1750 in Bath, England where he was married to Mary Ford (1733–1825), the 17-year-old daughter of John Ford (1711–1767) the master

mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

for whom he was working under the employ of Prince Hoare (1711–1769). Mary would have been 8 months pregnant at the time, as the couple's first child was born less than a month later. It has been noted that Mary spoke no Italian, so Giuseppe would have met her in Bath. It is also known that Prince Hoare visited Italy in 1749 and so it is likely that it is there that he met Giuseppe and convinced him to return to Bath with him. After several years of working for Prince Hoare, where it thought he was the sculptor of the bust of Beau Nash which today adorns the wall of the Pump Room in Bath and at the time was attributed to Hoare, he opened his own studio in Bath by 1753 where the piece now displayed in the Brownsword Gallery at the Holburne Museum "Diana and Endymion" was used as a centrepiece. At some stage before 1755 Joseph had moved his studio to Oxford Row in London but it appears business was not going well because in April 1755 he approached the

King of Sardinia The following is a list of rulers of Sardinia, in particular, of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica from 1323 and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1479 to 1861. Early history Owing to the absence of written sources, little ...

about returning to Turin, who agreed to hire him in the service of the King. Plura eventually decided to accept the offer almost a year later. The ambassador in London wrote to Turin on 18 March 1756 that Plura had intended to leave England for Piedmont in April but he had died that very morning "d'une fievre maligne".

Family

Giuseppe left behind three children Mary (1751–1831) who married Thomas Bartrum of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, Joseph jr (1753–1785) – who was also a sculptor, and John (1755–1831) an auctioneer and upholsterer who married Frances Delaval – daughter of Sir Francis Delaval and niece of Lord John Hussey Delaval.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plura, Joseph English sculptors English male sculptors English people of Italian descent 1756 deaths Year of birth unknown 18th-century Italian sculptors