Ettore Ximenes (11 April 1855 20 December 1926) was an Italian sculptor.

Biography

Ettore Ximenes was born 11 April 1855 in

Palermo, Italy Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. Son of Antonio Ximenes and Giulia Tolentino, a Sicilian noble woman, Ettore Ximenes initially embarked on literary studies but then took up sculpture and attended the courses at the Palermo Academy of Fine Arts. After 1872, he continued training at the Naples Academy under

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an Italians, Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Ac ...

and Stanislao Lista. He also established a close relationship with

Vincenzo Gemito Vincenzo Gemito (July 16, 1852 – March 1, 1929) was an Italian sculptor and artist. Although he worked in various studios of well-known artists in his native Naples, Rome and Paris, he is considered to have largely been self-taught, the reason ...

He returned to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

in 1874 and won a competition for a four-year grant, which enabled him to study and open a studio for sculpture in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. In 1873 at Vienna, he exhibited ''Work without Genius''. In 1877 at Naples, he exhibited a life-size statue titled ''The Equilibrium'' about a gymnast walking on a sphere. He would make copies of this work in small marble and bronze statuettes. He exhibited a stucco ''Christ and the Adultress'' and ''Il cuore del re (Heart of the King)'', the latter depicting an oft-repeated story of King Vittorio Emanuele during one of his frequent hunts, encountering and offering charity to a peasant child. At the 1878 Paris World Exposition he displayed: ''The Brawl'' and ''il Marmiton''. In Paris, he met with

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

and

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (; 11 May 1827 – 12 October 1875) was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire under Napoleon III. Life Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpe ...

. In 1878, he also completed a life-size stucco of ''il Ciceruacchio'', a statue of the Italian patriot Angelo Brunetti and his thirteen-year-old son, depicting them at the moment of their execution in 1849 by Austrian troops. The Cicervacchio statue, with its tinge of revolutionary zeal, did not find commissions for completing the work in marble.He then completed a nude statue of '' Nanà'' based on the novel by

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

; the statue was exhibited at the 1879 Salon di Paris. The next year at the Paris Salon, he displayed ''La Pesca meravigliosa'', where a fisherman rescues a bathing maiden. Returning to Italy, he displayed the bust del minister

Giuseppe Zanardelli Giuseppe Zanardelli (29 October 1826 26 December 1903) was an Italian jurist and political figure. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 15 February 1901 to 3 November 1903. An eloquent orator, he was also a Grand Master freemason. Zan ...

. At the Mostra of Rome, he displayed ''The assassination of Julius Caesar''; and at the Exposition of Venice, ''Ragazzi messi in fila''. Ximenes' realism gave way to Symbolist and Neo-Renaissance elements. In addition to sculpture, he also produced illustrations for the works of Edmondo De Amicis published by the Treves publishing house. Ximenes was involved in many of the major official monumental projects in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

from the 1880s on and devoted his energies as from 1911 primarily to commissions for important public works in São Paulo, Kyiv, New York and Buenos Aires.

Works

In Italy

*Bronze

quadriga A quadriga is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast and favoured for chariot racing in classical antiquity and the Roman Empire. The word derives from the Latin , a contraction of , from ': four, and ': yoke. In Latin the word is almos ...

Palace of Justice, Rome The Palace of Justice (), colloquially nicknamed ('the Awful Palace'), is the seat of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Judicial Public Library of Italy. It is located in the Prati district of Rome, facing , , , and . History Designed by th ...

In Ukraine

* Monument to Emperor

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Grand Du ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

(1911) * Monument to

Pyotr Stolypin Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Аркадьевич Столыпин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian statesman who served as the third Prime Minister of Russia, prime minister and the Ministry ...

(1913) Image:Alexander 2 Kyiv 02.jpg,

, 1911 Image:Kyiv-stolypin-statue.jpg,

, 1913

In the United States

Giovanni da Verrazzano Giovanni da Verrazzano ( , ; often misspelled Verrazano in English; 1491–1528) was an Italian ( Florentine) explorer of North America, who led most of his later expeditions, including the one to America, in the service of King Francis I of ...

in the Battery, Manhattan, New York, 1909100 year
at downtownexpress.com *

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

in Dante Park at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and in Meridian Hill Park,

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

- castings of the same work, 1921 File:Giovanni da Verrazzano by Ximenes, Battery Park, NYC.jpg, Verrazzano Monument, 1909 Image:Dante (Malcolm X Park).jpg, ''

'',

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

's Meridian Hill Park File:Artgate_Fondazione_Cariplo_-_Ximenez_Ettore,_La_Repubblica_Argentina.jpg, '' La repubblica Argentina'', 1900

References

Bibliography

* Elena Lissoni
Ettore Ximenes
online catalogu
Artgate
by

Fondazione Cariplo Fondazione Cariplo is a charitable foundation in Milan, Italy. It was created in December 1991 when the Amato law, Law no. 218 of 30 July 1990, came into force. Under this law, saving banks were required to separate into a not-for-profit foun ...

, 2010, CC BY-SA (source for biography). * Dianne Durante, ''Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide'' (New York University Press, 2007), with a discussion of the Verrazzano. *Fried, Frederick & Edmund V. Gillon Jr., ''New York Civic Sculpture'', Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1976 *Goode, James M., ''The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C.'', Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1974 *Lederer, Joseph & Arley Bondarin, ''All Around Town: A Walking Guide to Outdoor Sculpture in New York'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1975 *Mackay, James,''The Dictionary of Sculptors in Bronze'', Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk 1977

External links

Artnet.com biography: Ettore Ximenes

Flickr.com Ettore Ximenes Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ximenes, Ettore 1855 births 1926 deaths Artists from Palermo 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists 19th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 19th-century Italian male artists