Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry
| Industry | metalworking |
|---|---|
| Founded | Florence, Tuscany, Italy, 1905 |
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Key people
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Ferdinando Marinelli, founder; Ferdinando Marinelli Jr., owner |
| Products | Statues and Monuments in Bronze |
| Website | http://www.fonderiamarinelli.it |
Coordinates: 43°29′03.6″N 11°08′06.0″E / 43.484333°N 11.135000°E
Ferdinando Marinelli, founder;
The Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry (Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli also known as FAFM) is one of the last remaining Florentine foundries, producing works in bronze utilizing the Renaissance technique of lost-wax. A large number of bronze sculptures produced in Florence over the last century come from this artistic foundry. One of the most famous and popular works in Florence, the 'La Fontana del Porcellino', was cast by the Marinelli Foundry in 1988 and replaced the antique in 1998.
As early as 1929, Marinelli Foundry was present internationally. It produced the monumental sculpture ‘La Carretta dei Pioneri’ (‘The Pioneer’s Cart’) carved by the Uruguayan artist José Belloni. It may still be seen today in Montevideo. In 1932, the panels of the immense staircase at the entrance of the Vatican Museums by Antonio Maraini were cast. A more recent achievement is the ‘Warrior on horseback’ in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, inaugurated in 2011 and the work of the sculptor Valentina Stevanovska.
The history of the Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli begins in 1905 with the opening of a small shop on Florence’s Via de’ Giudei (today’s Via Ramaglianti) by Ferdinando Marinelli. Born in Piegaro, in the Province of Perugia in 1887, he arrived as a teenager in Florence where he was apprenticed first to Cusmano Vignali’s foundry and subsequently to Gabellini’s, learning the techniques of both stirrup manufacturing as well as lost-wax casting. In 1915, he was employed by the Fonderia of Alessandro Biagiotti (Biagiotti’s nickname was ‘Brucino’). After World War I, Ferdinando took over the Gabellini foundry on Via del Romito (today’s Via Filippo Corridoni). During this period, the Marinelli Foundry produced several monuments which commemorate the fallen of World War I; those on Piazza Dalmatia in Florence and Poggio a Caiano, (both by Mario Moschi) as well as those at Barberino Val d’Elsa and Cerbaia, (works by Odo Franceschi). In 1925, the Foundry executed the monument to the painter Giovanni Fattori donated to the city of Livorno by Valmore Gemignani. Two years later, the Chamber of Commerce, Florence surveyed the artisan workshops in the Province and reported that: «The reputation of the Marinelli Foundry […] rests on the perfection of its casting, employing an acid based varnish permitting the metal to be displayed without losing any of its glare, maintaining warm tonalities, those of natural bronze thereby creating works of art».
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