The Italian Language

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Sculpture

		Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519), the typical Renaissance man, besides being a sculptor, was a painter, architect, anatomist, engineer, inventor, mathematician and musician (see painting). Benvenuto Cellini ( 1500-1571), the sculptor and goldsmith, worked for a time for Francis I in Paris and in Fontainebleau. Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1690), the architect of St. Peter's Square, in Rome, travelled to Paris in 1665, invited by Louis XIV. He was supposed to work for the king and even submitted some projects for the enlargement of the Louvre, which came to nothing. He made himself unpopular in France, because he considered Italian art as superior to French. The only work to have survived from this French journey is a bust of Louis XIV, which was considered as a model to be followed for a number of years after.
Benvenuto Cellini, Salt Cellar made for Francis I

	Jean Boulogne (Giambologna, Giovanni Da Bologna) (1529 - 1608) the sculptor, was born in Douai, Flanders, but moved to Italy in 1550, settling first in Rome, but after moving to Florence, where he worked for the Medici. He developed a Mannerist style; several of his major works are on display in Florence, like the statue of the Apennines, in the Villa Demidoff (see Aristocrats)in Pratolino, near Florence, and some of the statues of the group of the Fountain of Neptune, In Piazza della Signoria, in Florence.
Architecture, by Giambologna, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Antonio Canova (1757-1822), the Venetian sculptor, travelled extensively in England and France. He is best-known for his capacity to render on stone the effect of skin. He made a half-nude statue of Napoleon's sister, Pauline, as Venus Victrix.
		Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix, by Canova (Galleria Borghese, Rome

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The Three Graces, by Antonio Canova (Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was a sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker born in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, near the border between both countries. His career is, however, more connected to France than to Italy.

Baron Carlo (Charles) Marochetti (1805-1867) was born in Turin, but raised in Paris. He was active in France for a time, but after the fall of Louis Philippe, he went into exile to England with this last of the kings of France. His is the statue of Richard the Lionheart, that stands outside the Westminster Palace. In France he worked on one panel of the Arc de Triomphe.

Among modern sculptors active in Italy I can cite the Columbian Fernando Botero (see painting) and the Pole Igor Motoraj (1944), both living in Pietrasanta.