Giovanni Battista Amendola Biography
Giovanni Battista Amendola (Episcopio of Sarno, 1848 – Naples, 1887) was an Italian sculptor. He studied in Naples at the Academy of Fine Arts. Most of his works are present in the Neapolitan city, including the statue of Gioacchino Murat for the facade of the Royal Palace, a bust of the architect Errico Alvino in the park of the Villa Municipal, two monumental bronze caryatids in Egyptian style on the sides of the door of the Mausoleum of the Fallen in Posillipo. In Salerno his dying Pergolesi can be seen in the Giuseppe Verdi municipal theatre. He moved to England, receiving commissions also from abroad. Here he produced the well-known bronze of a thoughtful woman entitled The Dominating Thought, and Wedded (bronze of a young couple). He also produced a small statue of Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema seated. He is also the author of bronzes and small terracotta sculptures, such as the Portrait of Angelina Leonetti from 1880 (private collection), a bronze Venus (private collection), the Blacksmith (1874, Museum of San Martino), the Pierrot (1871, Museum of Capodimonte). One of his bronzes depicting a young man carrying bunches of grapes over a meter tall is present inside the Ospedali Riuniti of Livorno.
