Pasquale Romanelli

Pasquale Romanelli (Florence, May 28, 1812 – Feb 11th 1887) was an Italian sculptor, apprentice of Lorenzo Bartolini. Father to Raffaello Romanelli and grandfather to Romano Romanelli, Pasquale was the first generation of what became a family dynasty of reputed Florentine sculptors.

Born in Florence in 1812 to Luigi Romanelli and Beatrice Chelazzi. At a young age he was orphaned from his mother.

Pasquale married Elisa Mangoni, and together they had 6 children, Laetizia, Raffaello....

Training: Luigi Pampaloni, Lorenzo Bartolini and Borgo San Frediano

Pasquale entered an apprenticeship in a studio producing alabaster sculptures, studying in his free time and reading every book he could procure. Alabaster, or Castellina marble, being much softer to carve than other marbles, makes it a very good material with which to begin learning the required sculpting techniques. Pasquale made such progress that soon, at barely fifteen years old, he joined the apprentices in the studio of Luigi Pampaloni, in Piazza San Marco, who trained him in the skills of working Carrara statuary marble. He was quickly promoted to assisting the master in the carving of the statues of Arnolfo di Cambio and of Filippo Brunelleschi, now placed in the Piazza del Duomo in Florence.

Pasquale’s skill was such that the already famous Lorenzo Bartolini, professor of sculpture at the Accademia delle Belli Arti di Firenze, invited him to enter his studio in Borgo San Frediano and to attend his courses at the academy. He became Bartolini’s most gifted pupil and certain commissions were passed-on to him. Pasquale worked on the statue of Francesco Ferrucci 1847, which was then placed in an alcove of the loggiato of the Uffizi Gallery in Piazza della Signoria. He soon opened a studio of his own.

In 1840 Pasquale exhibited for the first time a piece of his own work entitled The Son of William Tell. The sculpture alluded to the people’s desire for independence. It met with such success that it was subsequently given a prize at the New York Exhibition of 1854 and also at the 1861 first Great Italian exhibition which followed the Unification of Italy in 1860. The statue was bought by Italian king S.M. Vittorio Emanuele II.

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