Teodor Rygier (9 October 1841, Warsaw - 18 December 1913, Rome) was a Polish sculptor known for his Adam Mickiewicz Monument in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Life

Rygier studied in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In the years 1865-1866 he studied sculpture in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Subsequently, Rygier lived and worked in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

between 1873-1886, and from 1886 in Rome. The Academy of Fine Arts of St Petersburg named him an academic, while the Academies of Fine Arts of Florence, and Bologna nominated him an honorary associate. Adam-Mickiewicz-Monument-by-Rygier-Krakow

Adam-Mickiewicz-Monument-by-Rygier-Krakow

A stipend won in Berlin, which allowed him to study in Paris. There he displayed a life sized statue of the Madonna at the Salon Exhibition in Paris of 1866. He then returned to Poland to found a factory for the production of

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

statues, but the factory fell victim to a fire. During 1867-1874, he also found patronage in Poland for the production of medallions and busts. In Warsaw exhibitions, he won awards in 1872 and 1873 for statues of ''Faith'' and ''Copernicus''. He then completed among other works: a statue of the ''Immaculate Conception'', a ''Coquette'', a busts of the ''Madonna'', and a bust of a girl titled ''il Sorriso''. In 1874, he settled in Florence. There he made a large bronze of the ''Risen Christ Blessing the World''. In 1875, he made two stucco bas-reliefs: a ''Christ before Pilate'' and a ''Descent from the Cross''. He intended to complete the 14 Stations of the Passion in bronze, but was stymied by the expense. In 1875, he sculpted a marble ''Madonna and child'', exhibited at the Salon of Paris. In 1881, he completes the statue of ''Regina Caelorum'', who extends her arms to the entire world. The portraits by this artists includes the bust of

Antonio Corazzi Antonio Corazzi (born 16 December 1792 in Livorno, died April 27 1877 in Florence) was an Italian architect working in Poland from 1819 to 1847, mainly in Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style. Biography Antonio Corazzi was the son o ...

of Livorno. In 1874, he offered his larger-than-life marble bust of Copernicus to the Museo Copernicano of Rome, and a terracotta bust of Adam Mickievicz to an Academy in Bologna. Rygier made busts of his wife and sister; of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

(1875); of the poet

Teofil Lenartowicz Teofil Aleksander Lenartowicz (27 February 1822 in Warsaw – 3 February 1893 in Florence)Leopold Kronenberg (1878, once placed on a pedestal in the rail station to Warsaw); and the writer Kraszetcski. In 1877-1879 he completed twelve larger than life statues for the Granzow Palace in Warsaw, including four caryatids sustaining a balcony; four statues of ''Four Seasons'', and four depicting, ''Art'', ''Science'', ''Agriculture'', and ''Industry''. In contest of 1879, he designed three sculptural groups for the Palace of the Diet of Galizia: the ''Genius of Galizia'', ''Civility'', and ''Labor''. At the International competition of Moscow for the ''Monument to Alexander II'', in October 1882, Rygier won 3rd prize for 3000 rubles. But the work was never completed. ''Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi: pittori, scultori, e Architetti.''
by

Angelo de Gubernatis Count Angelo De Gubernatis (1840–26 February 1913), Italian man of letters, was born in Turin and educated there and at Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times. Life In 1862 he wa ...

. Tipe dei Successori Le Monnier, 1889, page 441-442.

The competition for Adam Mickiewicz Monument

The idea for a monument to a Polish national bard

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

was put forward by university youth on the account of the return of his remains from Paris. In the years 1882-1888, a committee was set up to conduct a public competition for its design. Teodor Rygier, who took part in all three stages of the contest, was awarded the rights for its production ''by popular demand'', ahead of over 60 artists including the renowned Cyprian Godebski, professor at the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

from

, who won the first prize.History of Adam Mickiewicz Monument
at "Magiczny Krakow" City's official website, ACK Cyfronet AGH, 2009. The unveiling of the statue took exceptionally long time due to endless requests for revisions coming from the artistic committee. The monument was finally unveiled on 16 June 1898 for the 100th anniversary of Mickiewicz's birth. The monument design is conventional for its time. The poet, raised on the pedestal, four symbolic groups are on the base: Motherland i.e. Poland (front), Science and learning – an old man with a boy (side on Florianska Street), Poetry (side facing Church of St. Wojciech), and Patriotic love or Valour (facing Sukiennice Hall).The Warsaw Voice, All About Poland
"The Charm of Cracow"
18 August 2005 All bronze figures were cast in the Nellich foundry in Rome. Aside from his statue of Adam Mickiewicz at the Main Market Square in Kraków, there is also one in the Old Town district, namely the bust of painter

Juliusz Kossak Juliusz Fortunat Kossak (Nowy Wiśnicz, 15 December 1824 – 3 February 1899, Kraków) was an Austrian Polish historical painter and master illustrator who specialized in battle scenes, military portraits and horses. He was the progenitor of an ...

featured in front of the Palace of Art at

Planty Park Planty may refer to: * Planty Park Planty may refer to: * Planty Park, a city park in Kraków, Poland * Planty, Podlaskie Voivodeship (north-east Poland) * Planty, Aube, France {{geodis