Augusto Rivalta (1835 or 1838 – April 14, 1925) was an Italian sculptor.

Biography

Rivalta was born in

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandri ...

, Italy, to Genoese parents. In 1859, he moved to

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 ...

, but soon swept up in the patriotic events, he volunteered for the Genovese Carabiniere, and took part in the campaigns. He was wounded during the conflict. He returned to Florence, where he studied with Aristodemo Costoli, and joined the studio of

Giovanni Duprè Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...

. Among his first designs was for a monument to Count Cavour in Turin. While the jury sided with Rivalta, the commission was given to the more established Duprè. Rivalta's statue was placed in the courtyard of the Banca Nazionale in Florence. Because he took part in the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

Rivalta was able to obtain commissions for memorials of many of its leaders including

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

, Cavour, Ricasoli and

Victor Emmanuel II en, Victor Emmanuel Maria Albert Eugene Ferdinand Thomas , house = Savoy , father = Charles Albert of Sardinia , mother = Maria Theresa of Austria , religion = Roman Catholicism , image_size = 252px , succession ...

. He also authored seven or eight memorials in the Staglieno cemetery in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

where he helped pioneer the Italian Realism movement with memorials such as those for the ''Carlo Raggio'' (1872), ''Pietro Ghigliani'' (1876), ''Giulio Cesare Drago'' (1884), and ''Pallavicino'' (1892) families. He also completed the ''Monument to Madama Trachil'' in the cemetery of

Nizza Monferrato Nizza Monferrato (''Nissa dla Paja'' in Piedmontese) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Asti in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about southeast of Asti. Nizza Monferrato borders the followin ...

. Among his other works are the ''giocatore di trottola'' ; the marble group of ''Un bambino che scherza con una capra''; and ''A wounded Zouave in ministered in the field by a Sister of Charity, while a bersagliere, launches himself with his bayonet towards the enemy'' (1861). he completed a ''Giovan Battista Niccolini'' once found in the Museum Capodimonte. He sculpted one of the bas-reliefs at the base of the Monument to Cavour in Turin, displaying the funereal cortege transporting the body to the cemetery. He completed the monument to the Garibaldi fighter, Savi. He completed a number of busts, and the equestrian statue of Vittorio Emanuele II for Livorno. In 1870, he became professor of sculpture at the

Florentine Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. ...

McKay, James, ''The Dictionary of Sculptors in Bronze'', Antique Collectors Club, London, 1995 where one of his students was

Pompeo Coppini Pompeo Luigi Coppini (19 May 1870 – 26 September 1957) was an Italian born sculptor who emigrated to the United States. Although his works can be found in Italy, Mexico and a number of U.S. states, the majority of his work can be found in ...

and another was

Theodora Cowan Theodora Esther Cowan (Theo) (1868–1949) was an Australian artist, regarded as the first Australian-born woman sculptor. She was one of a number of women sculptors who were working at the end of the 19th century. Apart from being the first t ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivalta, Augusto 1925 deaths 1830s births 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists 19th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 19th-century Italian male artists