Francesco Messina
Encyclopedia
Francesco Messina was an one of the most renowned Italian
sculptor
s of the 20th century.
in the Province of Catania
from a very poor family. Growing up in Genoa
where he also studied and lived until he was 32, he then moved to Milan
.
Art historians
consider him one of the most important figurative
sculptors of Novecento, together with Giacomo Manzù
, Arturo Martini
, Marino Marini
. He is the author of some of the greatest works of the Novecento Italiano
and his sculptures are displayed in the most famous museums, among which: Berne
, Zurich
, Goteborg, Oslo
, Munich
, Paris
, Barcelona
, Berlin
, São Paulo
, Buenos Aires
, Venice
, Moscow
, Saint Petersburg
, Vienna
, Washington
, Tokyo
.
From 1922 he began exhibiting his work regularly at the Biennale Internazionale d'Arte in Venice and between 1926 and 1929 he took part in the expos organised by the art group Novecento Italiano in Milan. In 1932 he moved to Milan, where in 1934 he obtained a tenured professorship 1934 in Sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, of which he became the director within two years.
During those years, about him wrote Carlo Carrà
:
In the 1930s
Messina exhibited at important collective expo
s of Italian art in Barcelona, Berlin, Berne, Goteborg, Munich, Oslo, Paris, São Paulo, Zurich, while executing various sculptures in many Italian cities. In 1936 he was appointed director of the Accademia di Brera, which position he will keep until 1944.
In 1938 Giorgio de Chirico
in Rome, and Salvatore Quasimodo
in Turin
presented two personal exhibitions of Messina's work. In 1942 he won the Sculpture Prize at the XXIII Biennale Internazionale d’arte of Venice, where he exhibited fifteen sculptures and seventeen drawings.
In 1943 Messina was appointed Academic Emeritus of Italy
. On the collapse of the fascist regime
, he was temporarily dismissed from the academy, only because he had been its director during the fascist period. However, by 1947 he had already regained his professorship. In the same period the artist took part in the Graphic & Sculpture Expo at Buenos Aires, in the Muller Gallery, achieve a noticeable success. In 1949 he exhibited at the 3rd Sculpture International
held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, together with Marino Marini and Picasso.
In 1956 he participated with a personal exhibition at the XXVIII Biennale di Venezia. In 1963 he produced the great monument to Pius XII for St. Peter's Basilica
in the Vatican
, as well as the bust of Pietro Mascagni
for the Teatro alla Scala. In the same year he was awarded the Michelangelo Prize for Sculpture in Florence
.
In 1966 Messina was commissioned by Italian RAI to create the Cavallo morente(Dying Horse), which will became the Italian national TV logo
, placed at the entrance of the RAI Building in Rome. In 1968 he sculpted the monument to Pius XI for the Milan Cathedral. In the 1970s
the Vatican assigned him the Sala
Borgia
of the Vatican Gallery Paulus VI, dedicated to modern sacred art
, as his permanent exhibition of twenty sculptures with a sacred theme.
In 1974 the City of Milan opened the Civico Museo
-Studio
Francesco Messina in the ancient former church of "San Sisto al Carrobbio". This will remain the artist's permanent and official studio until his death, also hosting ca. eighty sculptures (gessos, polychrome terracottas, bronzes
, waxes) and thirty graphic
works (lithographies
, pastels, acquarellos, pencil drawings) donated to the Comune di Milano.
In 1978 Messina attended two important exhibitions in the Soviet Union
at the Pushkin Museum
of Moscow and at the Hermitage
of Saint Petersburg, both of which will open dedicated sections of his sculptures, with ca. 80 pieces on display. In 1981, in the former church of Saint Francis in Pordenone
, an exhibition was held of his unpublished drawings, and in the same period a sculpture display at the Palazzo
Flangini-Biglia of Sacile
. Between 1984 and 1986, his sculptures are exhibited at the Theseus Tempel of Vienna, at the Hirshhorn Museum of Washington and the Gallery
Universe
of Tokyo.
Until his death in Milan in 1995, Messina continued his work of sculptor and painter and, assisted by his daughter Paola, amended and proofread the numerous biographies dedicated to him all over the world.
A selection of Messina's work (ca. 100) is permanetly exhibited within the former Church of Saint Sixtus in Milan. (see photo at right)
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s of the 20th century.
Biography and Career
Francesco Messina was born at LinguaglossaLinguaglossa
Linguaglossa is a town and comune in the Province of Catania in Italy, located on the northern side of Mount Etna. It was founded on a lava stream in 1566 which is reflected in the Sicilian name "tongue red"....
in the Province of Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
from a very poor family. Growing up in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
where he also studied and lived until he was 32, he then moved to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
Art historians
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
consider him one of the most important figurative
Figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
sculptors of Novecento, together with Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù, pseudonym of Giacomo Manzoni , was an Italian sculptor, communist, and Roman Catholic.-Biography:...
, Arturo Martini
Arturo Martini
Arturo Martini was a leading Italian sculptor between World War I and II. He moved between a very vigorous classicism and modernism. He was associated with public sculpture in fascist Italy, but later renounced his medium altogether.-Futurism:Martini seems to have been an active supporter of the...
, Marino Marini
Marino Marini
Marino Marini was an Italian sculptor. -Biography:He attended the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Florence in 1917. Although he never abandoned painting, Marini devoted himself primarily to sculpture from about 1922. From this time his work was influenced by Etruscan art and the sculpture of Arturo...
. He is the author of some of the greatest works of the Novecento Italiano
Novecento Italiano
Novecento Italiano was an Italian artistic movement founded in Milan in 1922 by Anselmo Bucci , Leonardo Dudreville , Achille Funi, Gian Emilio Malerba , Piero Marussig, Ubaldo Oppi and Mario Sironi...
and his sculptures are displayed in the most famous museums, among which: Berne
Berne
The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...
, Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Goteborg, Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
.
From 1922 he began exhibiting his work regularly at the Biennale Internazionale d'Arte in Venice and between 1926 and 1929 he took part in the expos organised by the art group Novecento Italiano in Milan. In 1932 he moved to Milan, where in 1934 he obtained a tenured professorship 1934 in Sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, of which he became the director within two years.
During those years, about him wrote Carlo Carrà
Carlo Carrà
Carlo Carrà was an Italian painter, a leading figure of the Futurist movement that flourished in Italy during the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to his many paintings, he wrote a number of books concerning art. He taught for many years in the city of Milan.-Biography:Carrà was born in...
:
In the 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
Messina exhibited at important collective expo
Expo
Expo may refer to:*Expo , short for "exposition", and also known as World's Fair*A trade fair, an exhibition where companies in an industry showcase and demonstrate their latest products...
s of Italian art in Barcelona, Berlin, Berne, Goteborg, Munich, Oslo, Paris, São Paulo, Zurich, while executing various sculptures in many Italian cities. In 1936 he was appointed director of the Accademia di Brera, which position he will keep until 1944.
In 1938 Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
in Rome, and Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times". Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets...
in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
presented two personal exhibitions of Messina's work. In 1942 he won the Sculpture Prize at the XXIII Biennale Internazionale d’arte of Venice, where he exhibited fifteen sculptures and seventeen drawings.
In 1943 Messina was appointed Academic Emeritus of Italy
Royal Academy of Italy
The Royal Academy of Italy was an organization of Italian academians, intellectuals, and cultural figures created on 7 January 1926 by the Fascist government of the Kingdom of Italy by a royal decree, and effectively dissolved in 1943....
. On the collapse of the fascist regime
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, he was temporarily dismissed from the academy, only because he had been its director during the fascist period. However, by 1947 he had already regained his professorship. In the same period the artist took part in the Graphic & Sculpture Expo at Buenos Aires, in the Muller Gallery, achieve a noticeable success. In 1949 he exhibited at the 3rd Sculpture International
3rd Sculpture International
3rd Sculpture International was an exhibition of sculpture that included works from 250 sculptors from around the world. It was "organized by the Fairmount Park Art Association under the terms of a bequest made to the Association by the late Ellen Phillips Samuel." It was held at the Philadelphia...
held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, together with Marino Marini and Picasso.
In 1956 he participated with a personal exhibition at the XXVIII Biennale di Venezia. In 1963 he produced the great monument to Pius XII for St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
in the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, as well as the bust of Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
for the Teatro alla Scala. In the same year he was awarded the Michelangelo Prize for Sculpture in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
In 1966 Messina was commissioned by Italian RAI to create the Cavallo morente(Dying Horse), which will became the Italian national TV logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
, placed at the entrance of the RAI Building in Rome. In 1968 he sculpted the monument to Pius XI for the Milan Cathedral. In the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
the Vatican assigned him the Sala
Hall
In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...
Borgia
Borgia
The Borgias, also known as the Borjas, Borjia, were a European Papal family of Italian and Spanish origin with the name stemming from the familial fief seat of Borja belonging to their Aragonese Lords; they became prominent during the Renaissance. The Borgias were patrons of the arts, and their...
of the Vatican Gallery Paulus VI, dedicated to modern sacred art
Sacred art
Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the bosom of the tradition in question....
, as his permanent exhibition of twenty sculptures with a sacred theme.
In 1974 the City of Milan opened the Civico Museo
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
-Studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
Francesco Messina in the ancient former church of "San Sisto al Carrobbio". This will remain the artist's permanent and official studio until his death, also hosting ca. eighty sculptures (gessos, polychrome terracottas, bronzes
Bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it...
, waxes) and thirty graphic
Graphic arts
A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...
works (lithographies
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
, pastels, acquarellos, pencil drawings) donated to the Comune di Milano.
In 1978 Messina attended two important exhibitions in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
at the Pushkin Museum
Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour....
of Moscow and at the Hermitage
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
of Saint Petersburg, both of which will open dedicated sections of his sculptures, with ca. 80 pieces on display. In 1981, in the former church of Saint Francis in Pordenone
Pordenone
Pordenone is a comune of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.The name comes from the Latin "Portus Naonis" meaning the port on the river Noncello - History :...
, an exhibition was held of his unpublished drawings, and in the same period a sculpture display at the Palazzo
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
Flangini-Biglia of Sacile
Sacile
Sacile is a town and comune in the province of Pordenone, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of north-east Italy. It is known as the "Garden of the Serenissima" after the many palaces that were constructed along the river Livenza for the nobility of the Most Serene Republic of...
. Between 1984 and 1986, his sculptures are exhibited at the Theseus Tempel of Vienna, at the Hirshhorn Museum of Washington and the Gallery
Gallery
Gallery may refer to:* An art museum * A retail art shop * An exhibition room in a museum...
Universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
of Tokyo.
Until his death in Milan in 1995, Messina continued his work of sculptor and painter and, assisted by his daughter Paola, amended and proofread the numerous biographies dedicated to him all over the world.
Works
- Pugilatore, Turin, Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea (1929)
- Nuotatore sulla spiaggia, Rome, Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna (1930)
- Monumento a Cristoforo Colombo, Chiavari (1935)
- Monumento equestre RegisoleRegisoleThe Regisole was a bronze classical or Late Antique equestrian monument, highly influential during the Italian Renaissance but destroyed in 1796...
(or Raggiasole), Pavia (1937), in memory of the RomanAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
monument of EmperorEmperorAn emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
Antonino Pio destroyed in 1796 - Monumento MinervaMinervaMinerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
armata, Pavia, University of PaviaUniversity of PaviaThe University of Pavia is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. It was founded in 1361 and is organized in 9 Faculties.-History:...
(1938) - Statue of Costanzo Ciano, La SpeziaLa SpeziaLa Spezia , at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia. Located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and hosts one of Italy's biggest military...
, Technical Naval Museum (1940) - I quattro cavalli di bronzo (The Four Bronze Horses), FormelloFormelloFormello is a town and comune in the province of Rome. It is located southwest of the Monti Sabatini, within the Regional Park of Veii. The communal territory is mostly composed by tuff, and is intensively cultivated. This town is known to be one of the few to have a football club in Serie A: S.S....
(Le Rughe) 1941 - 1970, Giovanni Leone Collection - Statues of the Cimitero Monumentale di MilanoCimitero Monumentale di MilanoThe Cimitero Monumentale in Milan, Italy is a very large cemetery, noted for its abundance of highly artistic and often imposing tombs.It was designed by the architect Carlo Maciachini...
, of the Church of Sant'EugenioSant'EugenioSant'Eugenio is a titular church dedicated to St. Eugenius in Rome, Italy.-History:The first church here was built in a style imitating and updating Baroque, by Pope Pius XII for his name saint and funded by gifts he received on the Silver Jubilee of his episcopate in 1942...
in Rome, and of the Christian Citadel of AssisiAssisi- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...
(1950-1960) - Bust of Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
, Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1958) - Beatrice, Dallas, Southern Methodist UniversitySouthern Methodist UniversitySouthern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
(1959) - Marble Monument to Catherine of SienaCatherine of SienaSaint Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D, was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the papacy of Gregory XI back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor...
, in Castel Sant'AngeloCastel Sant'AngeloThe Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
Rome (1961-1962) - Monument to Pius XII, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican CityVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
(1963) - Bust of Pietro Mascagni, Teatro alla Scala Milan (1963)
- Cavallo Morente (Dying Horse), RAI Building Rome (1966)
- Monument to Pius XI, Milan Cathedral (1968)
- Monumental Via Crucis with Madonna con Bambino in Carrara marble and Statue of ChristChristChrist is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
's ResurrectionResurrectionResurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
6m high, San Giovanni RotondoSan Giovanni RotondoSan Giovanni Rotondo is the name of a city and comune in the province of Foggia, Puglia region, southern Italy. As of 2006 it had a population of 26,442....
(1968-1980) - Portrait of Ranieri III Grimaldi, Prince of MonacoMonacoMonaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
(1974) - Stallone ferito (Wounded horse), Catania, Vittorio Emanuele III Square
- Sirenetta, Catania, Europa Square
A selection of Messina's work (ca. 100) is permanetly exhibited within the former Church of Saint Sixtus in Milan. (see photo at right)
Awards
- Prize for Sculpture in 1942 at the Biennale Internazionale d'Arte of Venice
- Honorary citizen of the City of Milan from 1975. In 1979 the State Pinakothek of Munich organised a comprehensive Messina exhibition of his sculptures and graphic art.
- Honoris causa academic of the Fine Arts Academy of the Soviet Union from 1988 and Honorary Academic from 1990
See also
- Figurative artFigurative artFigurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
- Plastic Arts
- Novecento
External links
- Bio Note, on Bestofsicily.com. Accessed 28 May 2011
- Gallery of works by F. Messina. Accessed 28 May 2011
- Dancer, (image). Accessed 28 May 2011
- Dying Horse (image). Accessed 28 May 2011
- Artinvest200.com - Biography and Works of Francesco Messina. Accessed 28 May 2011
- References, summary of links on Ocaiw.com. Accessed 28 May 2011