Piccirilli Brothers - History

History

In 1888, Giuseppe Piccirilli (1844-1910), a well-known stone carver and a veteran of Garibaldi's Unification war, brought his family to New York from Massa di Carrara, in Tuscany, Italy. The entire family, father and six sons—Ferruccio (1864- ), Attilio (1866-1945), Furio (1868-1949), Masaniello (1870-1951), Orazio (1872-1954) and Getulio (1874-1956)—were trained as marble cutters and carvers.

Although the Piccirilli Brothers were known primarily as architectural modelers and the carvers of other sculptors’ works, both Attilio and Furio developed names for themselves as sculptors independent of the family.

The family lived at 467 East 142nd Street in the Bronx and set up their workshop next to their home. Over the years their atelier grew until it eventually had encompassed the whole block.

At that time most prominent sculptors would create their original work in clay. From that clay model a caster would generate a plaster model. The model would then be sent to the Piccirilli Brothers who would carve it from stone, typically marble, although limestone and granite were also used. The brothers became the carvers of choice for a large number of American sculptors of the time including Daniel Chester French and Paul Wayland Bartlett.

Besides their work as carvers the Piccirilli Brothers also modeled vast amounts of architectural detailing and embellishments for a large number of public and private buildings.

One of the great losses in American art history occurred when the Piccirilli Brothers studio quietly closed it doors and no move was made to secure their records, so the accounts of much of what they had accomplished was lost.