{"id":109438,"date":"2022-04-19T11:02:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T10:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/ecomsite\/artisti\/francesco-messina\/"},"modified":"2025-03-02T09:01:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T08:01:49","slug":"francesco-messina","status":"publish","type":"artisti","link":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/en\/artisti\/francesco-messina\/","title":{"rendered":"Francesco Messina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francesco Messina<\/b> ( 1900 \u2013 1995)<\/span><\/p>\n

Francesco Messina was born in 1900 in Linguaglossa, a small town on the slopes of Mount Etna.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many poor families at the time, the Messina family considered emigrating to America in search of the American Dream, but they stopped in Genoa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, the young Francesco started working in marble workshops where his passion for sculpture was born.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When he was still in his twenties, started to exhibit his works.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1922, he was accepted to the XII Venice Biennale<\/strong>, surpassing a strict selection process, and presented his bronze Dead Christ. At the event in Venice, he had the honor of meeting Carlo Carr\u00e0<\/strong> and Adolfo Wildt<\/strong>. He participated again in 1942, winning the first prize, and then in 1956.<\/span><\/p>\n

He became friends with Eugenio Montale and Salvatore Quasimodo \u2013 and met Carlo Carr\u00e0 and Arturo Martini.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this period, through Eugenio Montale, he met the love of his life, Politeama Bianca Fochessati Clerici<\/strong> whom he married in 1944.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1925, he took part in the 3rd Rome Biennale and the Exposition des Arts D\u00e9coratifs et Industriels in Paris.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adolf Wildt, in 1926, invited him to participate in the “First Exhibition of the Italian Twentieth Century” in Milan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1932, he moved to Milan and established relationships with key figures in the art world, including Giorgio Morandi and Lucio Fontana.<\/span><\/p>\n

In just a few years, he became a nationally renowned artist and often a representative of Italian art abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, none of Messina’s early works have survived. He destroyed everything as he admitted himself. He said that they seemed to him like poor imitations of Arturo Martini.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the age of 34, he won a national competition to become the chair of sculpture at the Brera Academy, which had been held by Wildt, and he taught there for over thirty years.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same year, he won the competition for the monument to Christopher Columbus put on by the city of Chiavari.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 1950s and 1960s were a period of intense activity for Messina, as an authoritative academic teacher and artist in high demand in Italy and abroad for public and private commissions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Famous works by Francesco Messina:<\/span><\/p>\n

monument to Saint Catherine for one of the sides of Castel Sant’Angelo,<\/span><\/p>\n

monument to Pius XII for St. Peter’s Basilica,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the Dying Horse commissioned for the RAI headquarters in Rome in 1966.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Via Crucis in bronze and the large Madonna with Child in Carrara marble for San Giovanni Rotondo.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1970, the City of Milan gave him use for life as a studio of the church of San Sisto, at Via San Sisto 4\/A destroyed by the bombings in 1943, in exchange for the complete restoration of the church. The Francesco Messina Civic Museum-Studio opened in 1974.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Vatican Museums, the Borgia Room was dedicated to him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He died in Milan on September 13, 1995. Milan, which had been his home, welcoming him for much of his life, made him an honorary citizen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His works are found in many international cities, including Bern, Zurich, Gothenburg, Oslo, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, S\u00e3o Paulo, Buenos Aires, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Venice, Vienna,\u00a0Washington, and\u00a0Tokyo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Together with Arturo Martini, Marino Marini and Giacomo Manz\u00f9, Francesco Messina is considered one of the greatest exponents of 20th century figurative sculpture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":109145,"parent":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[6509],"class_list":["post-109438","artisti","type-artisti","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tags-m"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrancesco Messina - Egidi MadeinItaly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Francesco Messina, 20th-century artist, marble, bronze and terracotta sculptor, academic, renowned in Italy and abroad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/en\/artists\/francesco-messina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Francesco Messina\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Together with Arturo Martini, Marino Marini and Giacomo Manz\u00f9, Francesco Messina is considered one of the greatest exponents of 20th century figurative sculpture.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/en\/artists\/francesco-messina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Egidi MadeinItaly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/egidimadeinitaly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-02T08:01:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/993922AB-B4CA-4C89-BF7F-8CA907D5E75A-scaled-e1679997095754.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/egidimadeinitaly.com\\\/en\\\/artisti\\\/francesco-messina\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/egidimadeinitaly.com\\\/en\\\/artists\\\/francesco-messina\\\/\",\"name\":\"Francesco Messina - 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