Furio Piccirilli (March 27, 1868 Archivio di Stato - Massa, Furio Piccirilli, atto di nascita (birth record) #171 recorded April 3, 1868– January 17, 1949) was an Italian-born American sculptor and one of the Piccirilli Brothers.Opitz, Glenn B., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Books, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1988
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 to Mott Haven, Bronx. 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.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 He was "considered the most creative and the best modeler" of all the brothers.Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 1968 p. 99.
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.
Furio returned to Italy to get married in 1921, and then moved there permanently in 1926. He died in Rome in 1949.Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (Brookgreen Gardens, 1968), p. 101.
Selected works Five white marble portrait busts over Front Lobby doors, Daughters of the American Revolution Headquarters, Washington, D.C."Memorial Continental Hall," The American Monthly Magazine vol. 38, no. 4 (April 1911), p. 187. Bust of Ethan Allen (1911)Ethan Allen, from SIRIS. Bust of Isaac Shelby (1911)Isaac Shelby, from SIRIS. Bust of John Adams (1911)John Adams, from SIRIS. Bust of John Hancock (1911)John Hancock, from SIRIS. Bust of John Stark (1911)John Stark, from SIRIS/ Eurydice (1911), marble. Exhibited at 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (silver medal).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. Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915 Fountain of Spring Fountain of Summer Fountain of Autumn Fountain of Winter Facade and West Gate (1915), California State Building, Balboa Park, San Diego, CaliforniaCalifornia State Building Frontispiece, from SIRIS. Portia (niche figure) (1915), Martha Cook Building, University of Michigan, Ann ArborKvaran, Einar Einarsson, An Annotated Inventory of Outdoor Sculpture in Washtenaw County, Independent Study, Eastern Michigan University, 1989 Seated figures flanking side entrances, Parliament Building, Winnipeg, ManitobaThayer 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. Lord Selkirk Marquis of Dufferin General Wolfe Sieur de La Vérendrye (1920)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 Seal (1927), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City.Seal (MMA), from SIRIS. Another carving is located at Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.Seal (Brookgreen), from SIRIS. Penguin (1936), National Academy of Design, Manhattan, New York CityPenguin, from SIRIS.
References
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