26 Facts About Giuseppe Moretti

Giuseppe Moretti was an Italian emigre sculptor who became known in the United States for his public monuments in bronze and marble.

Giuseppe Moretti was born in Siena, Italy, on 3 February 1857, the nephew of Cardinal Vincenzo Moretti, a noted art patron.

Giuseppe Moretti began studying marble sculpting at the age of 9 with the monks of San Domenico and with sculptor Tito Sarrocchi, whose studio was in the cloister of the church in Siena.

Apparently aware that distant Florence was the nexus of Italian art, the young Giuseppe Moretti set off down the road in search of a career in the art world.

An alert neighbor returned the would-be runaway, and soon after, Giuseppe Moretti was placed under the tutelage of Serrochi.

Giuseppe Moretti later studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, working in the studio of Giovanni Dupre.

Giuseppe Moretti set up shop in Zagreb and made several important commissions before a large earthquake devastated the area.

Giuseppe Moretti decided to leave, moving to Vienna, Austria, where he worked on the Rothschild palace and executed a marble bust of the Emperor Franz Josef which was to be exhibited in the Paris Exposition of 1900.

However, a dispute with German authorities over a marble field that Giuseppe Moretti wanted to use for his projects and as an incentive to local sculptors frustrated Giuseppe Moretti and in the summer of 1888, he decided to relocate to the United States of America.

Giuseppe Moretti arrived in New York City and opened a studio.

Soon, Moretti was working on his first commission in America, sculpture for Marble House, the seasonal residence of William K and Alva Vanderbilt in Newport, Rhode Island.

On this project, Giuseppe Moretti worked with Richard Morris Hunt to produce the interior's marble friezes and statuary, including work on bas-reliefs of the architect himself and Jules Hardouin Mansart, the master architect for Louis XIV during the construction of Palace of Versailles; and which stood side by side on the mezzanine level of the staircase.

Giuseppe Moretti immediately recognized the potential of Pittsburgh's rugged terrain for such a vast project.

The first of many failed business ventures for Giuseppe Moretti was in 1897, when he and fellow Italian immigrant Riccardo Bertelli launched a small bronze foundry in December of that year with the help of a $20,000 loan from another Italian emigre, Celestino Piva, a wealthy silk importer.

Giuseppe Moretti agreed to charge only $6,000 for the massive plaster model of Vulcan, which was to be Birmingham's contribution to the St Louis Exposition.

Giuseppe Moretti created the model in New York City and moved to Alabama to work on the sculpture in 1904.

Giuseppe Moretti served as his apprentice until 1909, after which she stayed on as his assistant until his death in 1935.

Giuseppe Moretti moved around east of the Mississippi frequently after 1916, returning to Pittsburgh, where he established a permanent residence and studio on Bigelow Boulevard.

Giuseppe Moretti soon made war memorials a major source of his income, completing sculptures and tablets in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Giuseppe Moretti was pursuing a career in business by purchasing marble quarries, becoming a pioneer in the Alabama marble industry, and traveling to Birmingham in 1901 to develop the Alabama marble fields.

In 1897, Giuseppe Moretti designed the bronze statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

In 1921, Giuseppe Moretti designed a bronze and granite statue on the tomb of Sumner Archibald Cunningham, a Confederate veteran and editor of the Confederate Veteran, at the Willow Mount Cemetery in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Giuseppe Moretti remained there until his death in San Remo in 1935.

Giuseppe Moretti was a prolific artist, having completed twelve World War I memorials, nineteen monumental works, six church sculptures, twenty-four memorial tablets, fourteen cemetery memorials, twenty-seven sculptures in marble, bronze, and aluminum, and twenty-seven bronze statuettes.

At least 17 Giuseppe Moretti works remain and have been restored in Pittsburgh's east end.

Giuseppe Moretti sculpted a baptismal font for the 1st Presbyterian Church of Birmingham; a life-size Sylacauga marble statue of Mary Cahalan, a beloved public school teacher; and a larger than life-size bronze statue of William Elias B Davis, a noted surgeon and co-founder of the Southern Surgical Association.