Giovanni Giovannetti Biography
Giovanni Giovannetti (1861 - 1927) was an Italian sculptor, born in Lastra a Signa in the province of Florence, in 1861. After attending the evening drawing school at the Dante high school in Florence, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. The first works, under the guidance of his master, were for the decoration of the façade of the Florence Cathedral (1887) and for Federigo Stibbert's villa. In the same years he exhibited at the Tuscan Regional Exhibition and created the decorations for the Hotel Savoia and for the Florentine Pavilion for the 1896 Exhibitions. Having moved to Berlin after these experiences, Giovannetti began working under the guidance of Wilhelm Bode on the restoration of Italian sculptures preserved in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, and entered into relationships with important Italian antiquarians. Returning to Florence, he enrolled at the Academy of Drawing Arts and in 1912 he worked on the renovation of the Pergola theater and began to collaborate with the architects Adolfo and Gino Coppedè. We also remember his works for various funerary monuments for private individuals (Filippi, Piazzesi, Merlini, Ceccherini), the bronze bas-reliefs for the base of the monument of Santa Chiara in San Damiano in Assisi and the monument to the Fallen in the same city (1923). The last works were carried out by Giovannetti in Livorno (Palazzo delle Poste), Rome (Palazzo dell'INA).
