Leonardo Bistolfi

Leonardo Bistolfi was a sculptor of symbolism and senator (1923-24) of the Kingdom of Italy. Son of a wood sculptor, he studied at the Brera Academy beginning in 1876. In 1880 he moved to Torino to attend courses by Odoardo Tabacchi, who advised him to opened his own studio. One of his first major works was the Angel of Death for the Monumental Cemetery in Torino.

Between 1892 and 1908 Bistolfi also produced several funeral monuments (statues and reliefs), making Bistolfi – more or less against his will – the “Poet of Death”. One of his most important is the tomb of the Toscanini family in the Monumental Cemetery of Milano, where the great conductor Arturo Toscanini is buried. His floral symbolism gave way to a more realistic representation of the figures. In 1928 Bistolfi completed his mature masterpieces including the Monument for Giosuè Carducci, Nobel prize winner 1906 for literature, and the bronze monument of Giuseppe Garibaldi on horseback, placed in the center of the Prolungamento Gardens in Savona.