Narciso Cassino Biography
Narciso Cassino was born in 1914 in Candia Lomellina. After training at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts with Aldo Carpi and Francesco Messina, he began his artistic activity in 1936, receiving great critical acclaim and exhibiting in important exhibitions and competitions. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1942, in Sanremo in 1949, in Alessandria in 1951, in the Carrara National Exhibition in 1954, in Ancona in 1959 and in Florence in 1968 and 1977. He was particularly praised as a sculptor of sacred subjects, receiving prizes in the National Exhibition of Sacred Art in Milan in 1953, in Rome in 1968 and in Norcia and Spoleto in 1980. Some of his works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in the Vatican, including two processional crosses and a chalice made for the private chapel of Paul VI. Narciso Cassino has been associated with the aesthetic lines of Manzù and Martini, his works are characterized by essential forms and an expressive sweetness. Among his most famous works we can mention the monument to the Blessed Luigi Orione in bronze, the statue of the Blessed Luigi Orione in marble placed in the external left apse of the Cathedral of Milan and the bronze door of the mother church of the Pious Society of San Paolo in Sunrise. His most famous work is the gigantic statue of Mater Dei, designed by the blessed Luigi Orione, 14 meters high and in gilded bronze, which dominates the tower of the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Guardia in Tortona. This statue was blessed by Pope Roncalli in 1959. The statue of the Madonna shows the sweetness of the Virgin and her maternal attention together with a notable grandeur. This artistic brushstroke represents the great epic history of religion.
