Biography

Edoardo Alfieri (Foggia, 5 April 1913 – Sanremo, 23 March 1998) was an italian sculptor.

INFORMATION

Edoardo Alfieri was born in Foggia, in 1913, of Piedmontese origins (descendant of the great Vittorio Alfieri), son of a railway work, he attended the artistic high school in Bologna, Naples and Genoa, where he studied with Guido Galletti and he then attended the Fine Arts Academy of Brera in Milan with Francesco Messina. In 1928 he worked with Vincenzo Gemito in Naples and in 1930 he met Adolfo Wildt in Milan. Starting from 1932 he attended the Francesco Wildt’s School of Marble. He lived in Genoa and worked between Carrara, Verona and Pietrasanta.

In 1930 he was part of the futurism group “Sintesi” and participated in some exhibits chaired by Marinetti and Fillia. He was already noticed by the critics in 1929 and the Rotary club awarded him with an union show in Genoa. In 1935 for the architects Rogers, Banfi and Belgioioso, molded a colossal group “Atleta Vittorioso” installed at the sport exhibit in Milano. In 1939 he won the national artistic scholarship and became part of the third “Four-year” of arts in Rome and then he was back in 1948 and in 1950. A bas-relief of his were shown at the “Biennale di Venezia” in 1940, in 1948 and 1950. Between 1948 and 1950 sculptured Saint John apocalypse in Puri. 

His most famous public works were the numerous gravestones statues in the monumental graveyard of Staglieno, like the “Fiances Tomb” or the “Mele tomb”, or the “Blowing wind” , the bronze statue in the Saint’ Antonin gallery in Staglieno still.

Alfieri was tasked in 1955 to honor the twinning between Genoa, Italy and Columbus, Ohio, to model a statue that represents both cities. He decided to create a raffiguration of Cristopher Colombus, the Genoese sailor that discovered for the Europeans the Americas whose name was used for the name the Ohioan city.  

In 1958 worked for the Saint Peter and Paul in Avilla di Buia near Udine, where he made the altar, the pulpit, an high-relief for the way of the cross and the stoup. He started in 1958 but the works were finished only in 1997, near the death of the artist becoming an unofficial museum of his.

During his life he taught his art to students starting in 1948 when he taught sculpture at the Nicola Barabino Artistic High School in Genoa, then he became a Fine Arts Professor at the Academy in Genoa. Between 1968 and 1998, Stefania and Silvana Maisano became his apprentices and collectors, creating the Alfieri-Maisano Archive.   

The works of this artist are born from the Avant-Gardes and from them they trace the strength to nourish successive experiences to mature a contribution to italian sculpture and art.                             

The artist