Biography

Italian sculptor. He is associated with the sculptors Cesare Lapini, Ferdinando Vichi (1875-1940) and Guglielmo Pugi, all of whom executed works bearing the inscription: Galleria Bazzanti. The gallery, originally the studio of the sculptor Niccolò Bazzanti, the father of Pietro Bazzanti, was inaugurated in 1822 and is still open today.

Pietro Bazzanti was a central figure in the production of Florentine sculpture at the end of the 19th century. He specialised in allegorical and genre subjects as well as copies of antique and Renaissance sculpture. Regarded as one of the most talented sculptors of his day, his studio in Florence became a centre for other important sculptors whose works are inscribed Galleria Bazzanti or Gallery Bazzanti for the British or American market.

The studio produced statues of marble and pietra serena for the Florentine cemetery. The tombs represent classical sarcophagi, 'cinerary' urns upon columns, broken columns (to signify a life cut unnaturally short), while also using Egyptian motives, winged globes, butterflies, and the ourobouros.