Furio Piccirilli

Furio Piccirilli (March 27, 1868 [1]– January 17, 1949) was an Italian-born American sculptor and one of the Piccirilli Brothers.[2]

Bust of Furio Piccirilli by Attilio Piccirilli

Piccirilli was born in Massa, Italy into a family with a long tradition of carving and sculpting. Like his older brother Attilio he was educated at the Accademia di San Luca of Rome. With his brother Attilio he immigrated to England in the mid-1880s and then moved to the United States in 1888. With their father and brothers he helped establish the Piccirilli Brothers carving business.

He was a well known and respected sculptor aside from being known in connection with his family firm.[3] He was "considered the most creative and the best modeler" of all the brothers.[4]

Piccirilli Brothers carved the architectural sculpture for the Parliament Building in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Furio modeled the four larger-than-life seated figures that flank the side entrances.[5]

Furio returned to Italy to get married in 1921, and then moved there permanently in 1926. He died in Rome in 1949.[6]

Selected works
  • Front Lobby (1911), DAR Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
  • Eurydice (1911)
  • Fountain of Spring (1915), Panama-Pacific International Exposition
  • California State Building façade (1915), Balbo Park, San Diego, California
  • West Gate, California State Building. The spandrel figures represented the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
  • Portia (1915), Martha Cook Building, University of Michigan
  • Sieur de La Vérendrye (1920), Manitoba Government Building, Winnipeg
  • Side entrance, Manitoba Government Building, Winnipeg
  • Seal (1927), Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Penguin (c.1936), National Academy of Design

References
  1. Archivio di Stato - Massa, Furio Piccirilli, atto di nascita (birth record) #171 recorded April 3, 1868
  2. Opitz, Glenn B., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Books, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1988
  3. Koffler, Jerry and Eleanor, ‘’Freeing the Angel from the Stone: A Guide to Piccirilli Sculpture in New York City, The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, New York, 2006 p. 7
  4. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 1968 p. 99.
  5. Baker, Marilyn, ‘’Symbols in Stone: Manitoba’s Third Legislative Building: The Art and Politics of a Public Building, Hyperion Press Limited, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1986
  6. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (Brookgreen Gardens, 1968), p. 101.
  7. "Memorial Continental Hall," The American Monthly Magazine vol. 38, no. 4 (April 1911), p. 187.
  8. Ethan Allen, from SIRIS.
  9. Isaac Shelby, from SIRIS.
  10. John Adams, from SIRIS.
  11. John Hancock, from SIRIS.
  12. John Stark, from SIRIS/
  13. Stella G. S. Perry, The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition: A Pictorial Survey (San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company Publishers, 1915), p. 157.
  14. California State Building Frontispiece, from SIRIS.
  15. Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, ‘’An Annotated Inventory of Outdoor Sculpture in Washtenaw County, Independent Study, Eastern Michigan University, 1989
  16. Thayer Tolles, ed., "Furio Piccirilli (1868–1949)", American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works by artists born between 1865 and 1885. (MMA, 1999), pp. 512-514.
  17. Seal (MMA), from SIRIS.
  18. Seal (Brookgreen), from SIRIS.
  19. Penguin, from SIRIS.
  • Baker, Marilyn, Symbols in Stone: Manitoba’s Third Legislative Building: The Art and Politics of a Public Building, Hyperion Press Limited, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1986-
  • Koffler, Jerry and Eleanor, Freeing the Angel from the Stone: A Guide to Piccirilli Sculpture in New York City, The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, New York, 2006
  • Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, An Annotated Inventory of Outdoor Sculpture in Washtenaw County, Independent Study, Eastern Michigan University, 1989
  • Lombardi, Josef Vincent, Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor, Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York. 1944
  • Opitz, Glenn B., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Books, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1988
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