Piccirilli Brothers
Encyclopedia
The Piccirilli Brothers were a family of renowned marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 carver
Carver
-People:*Bob Carver, American physicist and audio equipment designer*Caroline Carver , thriller writer, award winner and adventurer*Dante Carver , American actor*George Washington Carver , American botanist and inventor...

s who carved a large number of the most significant marble sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

s in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, including Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...

’s colossal Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (1920 statue)
Abraham Lincoln is a colossal seated figure of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln sculpted by Daniel Chester French and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. It is situated in the Lincoln Memorial , on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., USA, and was unveiled in 1922...

(1920) in the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...

, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....


History

In 1888, Giuseppe Piccirilli (1844-1910), a well-known stone carver and a veteran of Garibaldi's Unification war, brought his family to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 from Massa di Carrara, in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The entire family, father and six sons—Ferruccio (1864- ), Attilio
Attilio Piccirilli
Attilio Piccirilli 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:...

 (1866-1945), Furio
Furio Piccirilli
Furio Piccirilli American sculptor and one of the Piccirilli Brothers.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...

 (1868-1949), Masaniello (1870-1951), Orazio (1872-1954) and Getulio (1874-1956)—were trained as marble cutters and carvers.

Although the Piccirilli Brothers were known primarily as architectural modelers and the carvers of other sculptors’ works, both Attilio and Furio developed names for themselves as sculptors independent of the family.

The family lived at 467 East 142nd Street in the Bronx and set up their workshop next to their home. Over the years their atelier grew until it eventually had encompassed the whole block.

At that time most prominent sculptors would create their original work in clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

. From that clay model a caster would generate a plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...

 model. The model would then be sent to the Piccirilli Brothers who would carve it from stone, typically marble, although limestone and granite were also used. The brothers became the carvers of choice for a large number of American sculptors of the time including Daniel Chester French and Paul Wayland Bartlett
Paul Wayland Bartlett
Paul Wayland Bartlett was an American sculptor working in the Beaux-Arts tradition of heroic realism. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Truman Howe Bartlett, an art critic and sculptor....

.

Besides their work as carvers the Piccirilli Brothers also modeled vast amounts of architectural detailing and embellishments for a large number of public and private buildings.

One of the great losses in American art history occurred when the Piccirilli Brothers studio quietly closed it doors and no move was made to secure their records, so the accounts of much of what they had accomplished was lost.

Original sculpture by the Piccirilli Brothers

  • USS Maine Monument, H. Van Buren Magonigle, architect, Atillio Piccirilli, sculptor 1913; Columbus Circle, New York City.
  • Firemen's Memorial, H. Van Buren Magonigle, architect, Atillio Piccirilli, sculptor figures of Courage and Duty 1913: Riverside Park at 100th Street, New York City
  • Much of the stonework on the California State Building and the attached buildings at the Panama-California Exposition (1915)
    Panama-California Exposition (1915)
    The Panama-California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California between March 9, 1915 and January 1, 1917. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward...

    .
  • Manitoba Legislative Building
    Manitoba Legislative Building
    The Manitoba Legislative Building is the meeting place of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, in central Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was originally named the Manitoba Parliament Building, not Legislative. The neoclassical building was completed in 1920 and stands seventy-seven meters tall...

    , 1919, Simon and Boddington, architects, figures of Sieur de La Vérendrye and Lord Selkirk, plus many architectural figures and details, Winnipeg
    Winnipeg
    Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

    , Manitoba
    Manitoba
    Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

  • Riverside Church, Riverside Drive, NYC 1931

Selected works carved for other sculptors

  • U.S. Custom House
    Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
    The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a building in New York City, built 1902–1907 by the federal government to house the duty collection operations for the port of New York. It is located near the southern tip of Manhattan, next to Battery Park, at 1 Bowling Green...

    , [1907], Cass Gilbert
    Cass Gilbert
    - Historical impact :Gilbert is considered a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with the legendary Daniel...

    , architect, The Four Continents, Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...

    ; and twelve allegorical statues on the cornice by Charles Grafly
    Charles Grafly
    Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years.-Life and career:...

    , Frederick Ruckstull
    Frederick Ruckstull
    Frederick Wellington Ruckstull was a French-born American sculptor and art critic.-Life and career:Born Ruckstuhl in Breitenbach, Alsace, France, his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1855. He worked at a variety of unsatisfying jobs until his early twenties when an art exhibition in St....

    , Augustus Lukeman
    Augustus Lukeman
    Henry Augustus Lukeman was an American sculptor, specializing in historical monuments. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and introduced to sculpting at age 10 at a boys' club miniature workshop. From 10 to 13 he worked with clay and wood. He then became a pupil of sculptor Launt Thompson until...

    , and others, at Bowling Green, NYC;

  • N.Y. Stock Exchange pediment
    New York Stock Exchange
    The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...

     [1903], John Quincy Adams Ward
    John Quincy Adams Ward
    John Quincy Adams Ward was an American sculptor, who is most familiar for his over-lifesize standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street.-Early years:...

     and Paul Bartlett, sculptors, George B. Post , architect, Wall Street, NYC.

  • "Apotheosis of Democracy
    Apotheosis of Democracy
    Apotheosis of Democracy is a public artwork by American sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett, located on the United States Capitol House of Representatives portico's east front in Washington, D.C., United States...

    " [1919] for the pediment of the House wing of the United States Capitol
    United States Capitol
    The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

    , Paul Bartlett, sculptor, Thomas U. Walter
    Thomas U. Walter
    Thomas Ustick Walter of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was an American architect, the dean of American architecture between the 1820 death of Benjamin Latrobe and the emergence of H.H. Richardson in the 1870s...

    , architect, Washington D.C.

  • Pediment and thirty large allegorical figures for the cornice of the Brooklyn Museum, [1913], Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...

    , Adolph Alexander Weinman
    Adolph Alexander Weinman
    Adolph Alexander Weinman was an American sculptor, born in Karlsruhe, Germany.- Biography :Weinman arrived in the United States at the age of 10. At the age of 15, he attended evening classes at Cooper Union and later studied at the Art Students League of New York with sculptors Augustus St....

    , Augustus Lukeman
    Augustus Lukeman
    Henry Augustus Lukeman was an American sculptor, specializing in historical monuments. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and introduced to sculpting at age 10 at a boys' club miniature workshop. From 10 to 13 he worked with clay and wood. He then became a pupil of sculptor Launt Thompson until...

    , Karl Bitter
    Karl Bitter
    Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born United States sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.- Life and career :...

    , Charles Keck
    Charles Keck
    Charles Keck was an American sculptor, born in New York City. He studied in the National Academy of Design and Art Students League with Philip Martiny and was an assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens from 1893 to 1898. He also attended the American Academy in Rome. He is best known for his...

    , Janet Scudder
    Janet Scudder
    Janet Scudder was an American sculptor.-Biography:Born as Netta Deweze Frazee, Scudder's childhood was marred by tragedy. Her father was a hardworking Terre Haute, Indiana confectioner who was active in community affairs. Her mother died, aged 38, on September 6, 1874...

    , Herbert Adams, Carl Heber
    Carl Augustus Heber
    Carl Augustus Heber was an American sculptor noted for his public monuments.Heber was born in Stuttgart, Germany and at a young age moved to Dundee, Illinois. He moved to Chicago where he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago with Lorado Taft...

     and others, sculptors, McKim, Mead, and White
    McKim, Mead, and White
    McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...

    , architects, Brooklyn, NY.


  • The New York Public Library
    New York Public Library
    The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

    , [1916] Carrère and Hastings
    Carrère and Hastings
    Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings , located in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership operated from 1885 until 1911, when Carrère was killed in an automobile accident...

    , architects, where they executed two pediments by George Grey Barnard
    George Grey Barnard
    'George Grey Barnard was an American sculptor, "an excellent American sculptor", the French art dealer René Gimpel reported in his diary , "very much engrossed in carving himself a fortune out of the trade in works of art." His lasting monument, rather than any sculpture of his own, is the...

    , six 11 feet (3.4 m) cornice figures including Poetry, Drama, and History, by Paul Wayland Bartlett
    Paul Wayland Bartlett
    Paul Wayland Bartlett was an American sculptor working in the Beaux-Arts tradition of heroic realism. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Truman Howe Bartlett, an art critic and sculptor....

     and the two lions by Edward Clark Potter
    Edward Clark Potter
    Edward Clark Potter was an American sculptor best known for his equestrian and animal statues. His works include the "Fortitude" lion in front of the New York Public Library.-Early years:...

    , which have come to represent the NY Library .

  • Washington Arch, Stanford White
    Stanford White
    Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...

    , architect, [1918] figures by Frederick MacMonnies, Hermon Atkins MacNeil
    Hermon Atkins MacNeil
    Hermon Atkins MacNeil was an American sculptor born in Chelsea, Massachusetts.He was an instructor in industrial art at Cornell University from 1886 to 1889, and was then a pupil of Henri M. Chapu and Alexandre Falguière in Paris...

    , and Alexander Stirling Calder
    Alexander Stirling Calder
    Alexander Stirling Calder was an American sculptor and teacher; son of the sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, and father of the sculptor Alexander Calder...

    , Washington Square, NYC

  • DuPont Circle Fountain
    DuPont Circle Fountain
    The Samuel Francis DuPont Memorial Fountain by Daniel Chester French was commissioned by the DuPont family in 1917, installed 1920, and was dedicated on May 17, 1921....

    , [1921], Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...

    , sculptor, Henry Bacon
    Henry Bacon
    Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , which was his final project.- Education and early career :...

    , architect, Washington D.C.
  • Civic Virtue Fountain, 1922. by Frederick MacMonnies, originally created for City Hall Park, has been, since 1941 located at Queens Borough Hall
    Queens Borough Hall
    Queens Borough Hall is a public building in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City which houses the Office of the Queens Borough President and other city offices and court space. It is located in the Kew Gardens municipal stretch bounded by Queens Boulevard and Union...

    .

  • Tomb of the Unknowns
    Tomb of the Unknowns
    The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in the United States...

    , aka Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery
    Arlington National Cemetery
    Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...

    , 1931

  • Past, Guardians of the Portals and Future, for Robert Aitken at the National Archives Building, Washington D.C.

External links

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