Raffaele Menconi

Raffaele Menconi (1877 — 1942) was an Italian-American sculptor. Menconi established a practice in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with his brother Giuseppe (Joseph). Menconi realised the bronze architectural sculptures and fittings for a generation of Beaux-Arts architects, such as

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture, Be ...

; Menconi's bronze flagpole bases for the Fifth Avenue front of the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

(1912, ''illustrated'') are particularly prominent. Another pair of bronze flagpole bases by Menconi, showing an American eagle and representations of the four

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

s, to designs of

Egerton Swartwout Egerton Swartwout (March 3, 1870 – February 18, 1943) was an American architect, most notably associated with his New York City architectural firm Tracy and Swartwout and McKim, Mead & White. His buildings, numbering over 100, were typical ...

, stand before the

Missouri State Capitol The Missouri State Capitol is the home of the Missouri General Assembly and the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in Jefferson City at 201 West Capitol Avenue, it is the third capitol to be built in the city. ( ...

. His work also appears on the Reader's Digest building in Chappaqua New York, and in the

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He married Josephine Zampieri; their son,

Ralph J. Menconi Ralph J. Menconi (June 17, 1915 – November 18, 1972) was a prominent sculptor and medallist, who received many accolades during his lifetime. Among them were the Ellen P. Speyer award for original sculpture in 1941, the Freedom Foundation Awar ...

(1915–1972), who apprenticed in his father's New York studio, was also a well-known sculptor and medalist. The Menconi Family lived in an Italianate house designed by Menconi in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, for many years. Menconi once owned a cliffside home in

Union City, New Jersey Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census the city had a total population of 68,589,1877 births 1942 deaths Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Italian emigrants to the United States People from Union City, New Jersey