Libero Andreotti

Libero Andreotti was born in Pescia on June 15, 1875. After a brief stay in Palermo, he moved to Florence in 1899, where he found work in a printing shop and began modeling in clay at Mario Galli’s studio. His first exhibition took place in Venice in 1905, followed by a successful show in Milan the following year, where the art dealer A. Grubicy took an interest in his work. Between 1909 and 1914, Andreotti lived in Paris, where he exhibited with success at the Salon d’Automne and the Galérie Bernheim Jeune. During this period, he moved away from any impressionistic influences and developed a focus on the compactness of plastic form, while retaining a traditional sense of beauty. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire praised Andreotti for revitalizing Italian medal art. Some of his notable works from this period include “Woman with Cymbals” and “Dancer” (both 1912), the latter inspired by the sculpture of Aristide Maillol, as well as the bronze group “Diana and Actaeon” (1914), commissioned by Ph. Sassoon. Returning to Italy in 1914, Andreotti participated in World War I and, in 1920, began teaching sculpture at the Royal Art Institute in Florence. He also led an artistic group known as “dell’Antico Fattore.” During this time, his production in marble and bronze became abundant, though it retained a certain stylization, influenced by his classical academic training. Some of his key works from this period include the War Memorials for Roncade (1922) and Saronno (1924), the Monument to the Italian Mother in Santa Croce, Florence (1924–1925), the “Risen Christ” at the Arch of Victory in Bolzano (1928), and the group “Africo and Mensola” (1933), now housed at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. Libero Andreotti passed away in Florence on April 4, 1933. His works, which had a significant impact on Italian sculpture, are held in major modern art galleries in Italy and abroad, including those in Florence, Venice, Milan, Turin, Nantes, Budapest, Vienna, Minneapolis, Honolulu, and Lima. A notable collection of his bronzes and marbles is still in the possession of his family in Florence, along with unpublished sketches for the War Memorial of Milan. Some of his drawings are kept in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe in Florence, the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, and in private collections.