Bastianini, Giovanni |
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BORN 17 Sep 1830, Camerata Picena, Marche - DIED 29 Jun 1868, Firenze, Toscana GRAVE LOCATION Firenze, Toscana: Cimitero Monumentale delle Porte Sante (columbarium, niche 877) |
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Giovanni Bastianini started as a stonecutter in Fiesole. Francesco Inghirami sent him to Florence, where he studied under Pio Fedi and Girolamo Torrini. Together with Torrini he created a sculpture of Donatello for the portico of the Uffizi. He admired Renaissance sculpture and between 1848 and 1866 he produced neo-Renaissance works for the art dealer Giovanni Freppa. During the 1860s they turned to fraud and his bust of the poet Girolamo Benivieni was bought for the Louvre by the comte de Nieuwerkerke, who assumed it to be genuine 15th century. Eventually Freppa confessed to the fraud after he did not receive his percentage of the high price that the Louvre had paid. In 1864 the Victoria and Albert Museum in London bought one of his sculptures as an example of a work that was inspired by the past, even though it knew that it had bought forgeries created by him in previous years. Related persons • has a connection with Nieuwerkerke, Alfred Émilien, comte de |
| Images |
 The grave of Giovanni Bastianini at the Cimitero Monumentale delle Porte Sante, Firenze. Picture by Androom (05 Feb 2011) |
Sources • Giovanni Bastianini - Wikipedia (EN) |
