Giacomo Cometti Biography
He was born in Turin on 23 October 1863 to Antonio, a marble sculptor of Swiss origin, and Luigia Versino. Following the early death of his father, which occurred in 1870, he went to the workshop of Odoardo Tabacchi and Davide Calandra, two of the most important sculptors active in Turin at the end of the century, then attending the Albertina Academy, where he graduated in 1891 with the first prize in sculpture. In 1892 Leonardo Bistolfi - one of the greatest representatives of Liberty and Symbolist sculpture in Italy - called him to work in his studio and collaborated with him especially in the execution of funerary monuments. In 1894 he obtained a sculpture prize at the Antwerp Exhibition and was commissioned to create the sculptural body of “Le tre Sture” for the fountain at the Turin Exposition of 1898. In this same year Cometti began to take his first steps in what would be his main artistic vocation, creating his first piece of furniture. In 1900 he participated in the International Exhibition in Paris, where he presented a sitting room decorated with some panels by Leonardo Bistolfi which symbolized painting, music, literature and dance, also obtaining an honorable mention for a fabric storage cabinet. Two years later, in 1902, he received a diploma of honor awarded unanimously at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin. From this moment Cometti dedicated himself totally to the design and execution of furniture and furnishings, which stood out both for their refined craftsmanship (sculptural carvings, interlocking bindings) and for the intelligent formula not intended for a luxury clientele, but for a bourgeoisie cultured and open to international news; he produced in small series for which he used, with an autonomous personality, the Austro-Scottish models of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and above all those of the Belgian architect and designer Henry Van de Velde.
