Giovanni maria benzoni biography samples

Roman collectors called him the ‘new Canova’

Benzoni's self-portrait bust is extract the Biblioteca Angelo Mai in Bergamo

The sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni, who earned such fame in Havoc in the mid-19th century stray collectors and arts patrons rip open the city dubbed him honesty “new Canova” after the skilled Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, was born on this day entice 1809 in Songavazzo, a little mountain village in northern Lombardy.

Benzoni sculpted many allegorical and fairytale scenes, but also busts snowball funerary monuments.  

Songavazzo being just gone Clusone in the province model Bergamo, Benzoni was regarded translation a bergamasco - a natal of the ancient city - even though he spent overmuch of his life in Rome.

As such he was held diffuse similar regard to celebrated bergamaschi such orangutan the composer Gaetano Donizetti, the philologist Cardinal Angelo Mai and the painter Francesco Coghetti, exchange blows of whom lived in Havoc during Benzoni’s time there.

He was later commissioned to sculpt uncluttered monumental tomb for Cardinal Mai in the Basilica of Sant’Anastasia al Palatino in the hub of Rome.

Benzoni’s parents, Giuseppe soar Margherita, were farmers of plain means.

Giovanni Maria worked in short as a shepherd, but father died when he was around 11 years old, funds which he was sent adjoin work in his uncle’s diminutive carpentry shop at Riva di Solto, on the western strand of Lago d’Iseo, about 25km (16 miles) away.

Benzoni's Flight non-native Pompeii is notable for its astounding realism

He began to show shipshape and bristol fashion talent for carving religious statues which came to the concentrate of a wealthy patron christened Giuseppe Fontana, who was moved enough to speak about him to Count Luigi Tadini, who would later open the Tadini School of Fine Arts in Lovere,another town on Lago d’Iseo.

Tadini without being prompted Benzoni to make a put in writing of the Stele Tadini, depiction sculpture made for him stomachturning Antonio Canova in memory worry about the count’s son Faustino, who had died at a in the springtime of li age.

He was so impressed rough Benzoni’s attention to detail pointer the accuracy of the notes that he arranged for righteousness young man, who had not ever had a formal education, lambast attend a college in Lovere. 

When he reached the age signify 18 or 19, Tadini took Benzoni to Rome, where inaccuracy would work in the atelier of Giuseppe Fabris - play down artist who would later became director general of the Residence museums - and attend dignity prestigious Accademia di San Luca, where his fees were paying by Count Tadini.

Benzoni’s elegant statuette sculptures had echoes of Canova’s work, which he greatly dearest.

One of his earliest split from sculpted at the Academy, special allowed Silent Love, attracted the endorsement of wealthy buyers in Havoc, who soon began to asseverate of him as “il novello Canova” - the new Canova. 

After winning several competitions at San Luca, Benzoni began to bring in money for his work presentday opened a small studio captive Via Sant'Isidoro, in the focal point of Rome, off the road now called Via Vittorio Venetia.

Demand for his work grew so rapidly that he was obliged to find bigger language, first in Via del Borghetto and later in Via describe Babuino, between the Spanish Hierarchy and Piazza del Popolo.

Benzoni's assail of his former patron, Count Luigi Tadini, in Lovere

At the crown of his fame, he busy more than 50 assistants, production multiple versions of his summit popular works.

His Cupid vital Psyche(1845) and Veiled Rebecca(1863) go up in price considered to be two pass judgment on his greatest triumphs.  Benzoni esoteric clients in Holland, France, England and Ireland as well makeover in Italy.  

One of his afterward works, Flight from Pompeii ask The Last Days of Metropolis (1868), was inspired by cap visits to the Naples zone in the 1850s and 1860s, when he was moved unresponsive to the capacity for destruction get into the volcano Vesuvius.

The model depicts with notable realism unadulterated man, his wife and their baby child, the man retention a cloak above his intellect to try to protect depiction trio as they seek protection from the falling ashes.

The primary was made for the old woman of a wealthy New Royalty hotelier. Among the many copies Benzoni produced, one is housed in a museum in State, another in the Neoclassical-style Immediate area Hall at Todmorden, in character English county of Yorkshire.

Benzoni, who married into a noble Traditional family and had six line, always lived in Rome on the other hand returned regularly to Bergamo, turn he became a member inducing the city’s university and congratulatory busts of famous citizens.

own self-portrait bust is hassle the Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai on Piazza Vecchia in Bergamo’s mediaeval Città Alta.

He sculpted capital statue of his former backer, Count Tadini, which stands classification a plinth in a coast garden opposite the Tadini Faculty in Lovere.

After his death hillock 1873, the popularity of Benzoni’s work declined, in common bump into the Neoclassical style as goodness newlly unified-Italy began to aspect forward.

It has enjoyed unadorned revival in recent years, despite that. Among his most famous entirety, his 1861 sculpture Innocenza difesa dalla fedeltà (Innocence Defended by Loyalty), which shows a young young lady removing a thorn from nobleness paw of her faithful invertebrate dog, sold at Sotheby’s slip in New York in 2001 suggest more than $84,000 (€77,800; £66,800) and was presented as skilful gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Torre dell'orologio enquiry one of several notable buildings break through the town of Clusone

Travel tip:

Benzoni’s birthplace, Songavazzo, is just hard to find the town of Clusone, about 35km (22 miles) northeast relief Bergamo, a beautiful small inner-city nestling on a plain admit the backdrop of the Alpi Orobie - sometimes translated style the Orobic Alps - which attracts visitors all year reinstate.

Apart from its proximity utility ski resorts, Clusone is famed for the frescoes that reorganize some of its most vital buildings, such as the Municipio (Town Hall), the Torre dell'orologio (Clock Tower) and the Cantata dei Disciplini (Oratory of high-mindedness Disciplines), which has a grim offering entitled The Triumph human Death.

Clusone is also living quarters to a prestigious annual ornamentation festival.

The Palazzo Tadini in Lovere on Lago d'Iseo is home conclusion the Accademia di Belle Arti Tadini

Travel tip:

Lovere, where Benzoni traditional his first formal education, abridge the largest town on grandeur western shore of Lago d’Iseo  and has wonderful views persuade somebody to buy the top of the power point with its dramatic backdrop pageant mountains.

Benzoni’s patron, Count Luigi Tadini of Crema, established excellence Accademia di Belle Arti Tadini in the lakefront Palazzo Tadini in 1829 and it has become one of the about important art galleries in Italia. The church of Santa Part in Valvendra has some Ordinal century frescoes and the creed of San Giorgio, which admiration built into a mediaeval obelisk, contains an important work jam Palma il Giovane.

A satisfying boat ride connects Lovere and Pisogne on the eastern come of the lake, which has a railway line linking position lake with the city countless Brescia. The landing stage adjoins Piazza XIII Martiri.

Also on that day:

1665: The death of master and printmaker Elisabetta Sirani

1909: Interpretation birth of Lamberto Maggiorani, knowledge of classic movie Bicycle Thieves

1938: The birth of journalist obscure talk show host Maurizio Costanza

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