Antonio Pandiani Biography
Antonio Pandiani (Milan, 1838 – 1928) was a sculptor belonging to the famous artistic and industrial dynasty of the Pandiani of Milan, together with Costantino (1837-1922) and Giovanni (1809-1879), also a neoclassical sculptor. Antonio attended the Brera Academy, where he trained to become a successful sculptor, known for his academic style and his portraits, such as the bronze one by Alessandro Manzoni (1905, Milan).
In 1886 Antonio became responsible for the family foundry, where he managed to create a high artistic production thanks to his ideas and projects. Many of his works reproduce in miniature historical monuments located in the most prestigious Italian squares, such as the equestrian monument of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, taken from Verrocchio's monument. Among the important figures of his time that he portrayed, we find Queen Victoria (gilt bronze bust preserved at Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection, The National Trust) and King Victor Emmanuel II in a hunter's costume, made for the Italian Industrial Exhibition in Milan in 1881.
Antonio also created a particular production of bronze cups, such as the one decorated with grotesque motifs and mythological scenes preserved in the "A. Toscanini" Birthplace Museum in Parma. Among the miniature copies of bronze statues, we find those of the late Renaissance wellheads by Niccolò da Conti (1556) and Alfonso Alberghetti (1559) from the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. Furthermore, he created the bronze copy of the wellhead in Istrian stone, present in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo also in Venice.
