Furio Piccirilli

West Gate in Balboa Park. Figures representing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Furio Piccirilli (March 14, 1869 – 1949) American sculptor and one of the Piccirilli Brothers.^[1]

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.^[2] He was "considered the most creative and the best modeler" of all the brothers.^[3]

Piccirilli returned to Italy to get married in 1921, and then moved there permanently in 1926. He died in Rome in 1949.^[4]

Selected work

Portia Martha Cook building

• California State Building arch, Balboa Park, San Diego, California 1915
• figure of Portia for the Martha Cook Building at the University of Michigan, 1915 ^[5]
• Four figures for the Manitoba Legislative Building, Lord Selkirk, Marquis of Dufferin, General Wolfe and Sieur de La Vérendrye, 1920 ^[6]
• Figures of Ethan Allen, Isaac Shelby, John Stark, John Adams and John Hancock at the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington D.C.
• Seal, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1927. Another carving is located in Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.
• Penguin, National Academy of Design, Washington D.C.

References

1. Opitz, Glenn B., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Books, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1988
2. 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
3. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 1968 p. 99
4. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 1968 p. 101
5. Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, ‘’An Annotated Inventory of Outdoor Sculpture in Washtenaw County’’, Independent Study, Eastern Michigan University, 1989
6. 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

• 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