Emilio Sala (sculptor)

Emilio Sala, also known as Elio Salya (Ukrainian: Еліо Саля. 30 April 1864, Milan - 10 January 1920, Milan) was an Italian-born sculptor and painter who spent most of his working life in Kyiv.

In 1890, he and his brother were invited to Russia to work on the Moika Palace in Saint Petersburg. After two years of work there, he heard about the plans to build a new museum in Kyiv and offered his services. As Italian artists were very popular in the Russian Empire, he was accepted and began to create designs.

From 1897 to 1905, he produced griffins and lions for what is now called the National Art Museum of Ukraine. During that project, he struck up a very fruitful working relationship with the architect Vladislav Gorodetsky. He also designed various decorations for the Karaite Synagogue, the National Bank of Ukraine, St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the National Opera of Ukraine.

Unquestionably, though, his best known work is on the House with Chimaeras (also designed by Gorodetsky); a flamboyant art nouveau-style building for which Sala created fantastical cement renderings of elephants, panthers, rhinoceroses, giant frogs and other exotic animals.

In addition to his architectural work, he taught sculpture at an art school and a trade college. At the outbreak of World War I, he returned to Milan, where he died six years later.

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