In 1888, Giuseppe Piccirilli (1844–1910),[1] a well-known stone carver inMassa and a veteran ofGaribaldi's Unification war, brought his family toNew York City.[2][3][4] Giuseppe, who was born in Rome and received his early training in the atelier of Roman sculptor Stefano Galletti, came from a long line of stone carvers, unbroken since the days of the early Renaissance.[5][6][7] All six of Giuseppe's sons—Ferruccio (1864–1945),[8]Attilio (1866–1945),[9][10]Furio (1868–1949),[11] Masaniello (aka Thomas) (1870–1951),[12] Orazio (aka Horatio, Horace) (1872–1954)[13][14] and Getulio (1874–1945)[15][16]—were trained as marble cutters and carvers.
Although the Piccirilli Brothers were known primarily as architectural modelers and the carvers of other sculptors' works, Attilio and Furio further distinguished themselves as sculptors in their own right.
The family lived in a brownstone on 142nd Street in theMott Haven section ofthe Bronx and set up a workshop next to their home that eventually occupied an entire city block.
At that time most prominent sculptors created their original work inclay. From that clay model a caster generated aplaster model. The model was then sent to the Piccirilli Brothers who carved it from stone, typically marble, although limestone and granite were also used. The brothers became the carvers of choice for many American sculptors of the time includingDaniel Chester French andPaul Wayland Bartlett.
Besides their work as carvers the Piccirilli Brothers also created architectural detailing and embellishments for many public and private buildings.
One of the great losses in American art history occurred when the Piccirilli Brothers studio quietly closed its doors in 1945 and no move was made to secure their records, so the accounts of much of what they had accomplished were lost.
Firemen's Memorial,H. Van Buren Magonigle, architect, Atillio Piccirilli, sculptor figures ofCourage andDuty 1913: Riverside Park at 100th Street, New York City
Much of the stonework on the California Building in San Diego’s Balboa Park[17] and the attached buildings at the 1915Panama–California Exposition.
Fiorello H. LaGuardia Grave Memorial.Woodlawn Cemetery, New York Lombardo, Joseph Vincent. Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor. Pitman Publishing Corporation, Chicago.
^Shelley, Mary & Bill Carroll."Introduction".Lehman College. RetrievedMay 30, 2020.
^"Sculptor Piccirilli Dead".The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 21, 1910. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
^Lombardo, Josef Vincent (1944).Attilio Piccirilli: Portrait of an American Sculptor. The Ohio State University Fine Arts Library: Pitman Publishing Corporation. p. 7.
^City of New York (The Bronx), Department of Health, Certificate and Record of Death of Joseph Piccirilli (1910, certificate 448)
^Municipality of Massa Italy, birth registry, 1864 record number 239 for Pilade Attilio Ferruccio Piccirilli
^Municipality of Massa Italy, birth registry, 1866 record number 296 for Attilio Regalo Giuseppe Piccirilli
^"Attilio Piccirilli, Noted Sculptor, Dies".Poughkeepsie Journal. 9 October 1945. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
^Municipality of Massa Italy, birth registry, 1868 record number 171 for Furio Camillo Escarcio Tommaso Piccirilli
^Municipality of Massa Italy, birth registry, 1870 record number 319 for Masaniello Saviele Giuseppe Piccirilli
^Municipality of Massa Italy, birth registry, 1872 record number 370 for Orazio Adriano Giovanni Piccirilli
^"H. Piccirilli, 82, Retired Sculptor".The New York Times. 29 June 1954.
^Municipality of Massa Italy, birth registry, 1874 record number 701 for Settimio Severo Ugolino Piccirilli (aka Getulio)
^"Attilio Piccirilli, Noted Sculptor, Dies".Poughkeepsie Journal. 9 October 1945. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
Baker, Marilyn,Manitoba’s Third Legislative Building: Symbols in Stone: The At and Politics of a Public Building, Hyperion Press Limited, Winnipeg, Manitoba 1986
Balfour, Alan,Rockefeller Center – Architecture As Theater, McGraw-Hill Book Company, NY, NY 1978
Bogart, Michele H.,Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City: 1890–1930, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1989
Contemporary American Sculpture Issued for the Exhibition held by the National Sculpture Society in Cooperation with the Trustees of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, MCMXXIX, National Sculpture Society, NY 1929
Gardner, Albert Ten Eyck,American Sculpture: A catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1965
Kvaran, Einar Einarsson and Walt Lockley,Guide to Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
Lombardo, Josef Vincent,Atilio Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor, Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York 1944
Reynolds, Donald Martin,Monuments and Masterpieces; Histories and views of Public Sculpture in New York City, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York 1988
Somma, Thomas P.The Apotheosis of Democracy, 1908–1916: The Pediment for the House Wing of the United States Capitol, University of Delaware Press, Newark 1995
The Riverside Church in the City of New York: A Handbook of the Institution and Its Buildings, The Riverside Church, New York 1931
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