Attilio Piccirilli

Attilio Piccirilli (May 16, 1866 - October 8, 1945) was an American sculptor. Born in the province of Massa-Carrara, 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 father and then with the Piccirilli Brothers as a sculptor, modeler and stone carver at their studio in the Bronx, NY, at 467 East 142nd Street. This location is now a vacant lot. As artist in his own right, he is the author of the Maine Memorial in Columbus Circle, at the entrance to Central Park. One of the groups that he created for this monument was also used for his mother’s memorial in Woodlawn Cemetery. Also in New York he created a pediment and other sculptural details for the Frick Mansion on 5th Avenue and the Firemen's Memorial, a group of figures in Riverside Park.

Piccirilli’s 1935 Pyrex glass relief sculpture Laborata at the Palazzo d'Italia at Rockefeller Center was removed during World War Two after being deemed too fascist in style, and disappeared from storage some years afterwards.

Piccirilli is represented in the sculpture collection at Brookgreen Gardens. His work is also found in museums around the United States. White marble "Frapelina" now stands in the newly re-arranged American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

He died in New York City in 1945. His half-length portrait by Edmond Thomas Quinn is in the collection of the National Academy of Design.^[1]

Selected public commissions

• MacDonough Memorial, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1898
• Indian Literature and Indian Law Giver, facade of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, 1909
• Maine Memorial, Columbus Circle, New York, 1913
• Firemen’s Memorial, Riverside Drive, New York City. 1913^[2]
• North pediment, Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin. 1915
• Mothers' War Memorial, Albany, New York, 1923
• James Monroe Statue, Ash Lawn, Albemarle County, Virginia
• Thomas Jefferson Bust in Rotunda of Virginia State Capitol, Capitol Square, Richmond, Virginia, 1931.
• James Monroe Bust in Rotunda of Virginia State Capitol, Capitol Square, Richmond, Virginia, 1931
• Joy of Life (Young Faun), Governor's Mansion, Capitol Square, Richmond, Virginia, 1931
• Eternal Youth and Youth Leading Industry, Rockefeller Center, New York City, 1935
• Present Day Postman, Post Office Building, Washington DC, 1936
• Guglielmo Marconi Memorial, Washington D.C. 1941

Notes

References

• Balfour, Alan, Rockefeller Center – Architecture As Theater, McGraw-Hill Book Company, NY, NY, 1978 Washington D.C. 1974
• Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press,
• Kvaran and Lockley Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
• Lombardo, Josef Vincent, Atilio Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor, Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York 1944
• National Sculpture Society, Contemporary American Sculpture 1929, National Sculpture Society, New York, NY 1929
• Opitz, Glenn B , Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986
• Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1968
• Reynols, Donald Martin, "Masters of American Sculpture" Abbeville Press Publishers
• Crayen, Wayne, "Sculpture in America From the Colonial Period to the Present"

External links

• Attilio Piccirilli at Find a Grave