Biography

Italian sculptor, mainly active in Florence. He specialized in marble groups of allegorical, genre and all'antica sculpture for tourists, mainly from England and America. His workshop, the Galleria Lapini, was still operating in 1900.

He sold the productions of the workshop with great success along with works by his contemporaries in his Galleria, to travellers on the Grand Tour, which, from having been limited in the 18th century to the aristocracy and minor royalty now included the wealthy bourgeois from Britain, Germany, Russia, France and the United States.

He exhibited a number of sculptures at the 'Esposizione Generale Italiana di Torino' in 1884, including Sorpresa (Surprise) and Il primo bacio (The First Kiss). He also exhibited in Rome in 1888.

Lapini was widely admired for the delicacy and refinement of his technique, the fine patina and the emotional quality with which he imbued his figurative work. He was highly successful both as a sculptor and as the owner of the gallery retailing sculpture throughout Europe and the United States.