MacNeil sculptures carved by Piccirilli Brothers
ByA number of Hermon MacNeil’s sculptures were carved to full size by the Piccirilli Brothers. This family’s skills were quietly deployed by dozens of Beaux Arts sculptors and architects to complete monuments and buildings all over New York City and beyond.
The Piccirilli Brothers were renowned carvers of many of the most significant marble sculptures in the United States, including Daniel Chester French’s colossal Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
In 1888 Giuseppe Piccirilli (1844-1910), a well-known stone carver, brought his family to New York from Massa, Italy. The entire family, father and six sons – Attilio, Feirrucio, Furio, Getulio (Giulio), Masaniello, and Orazio – were trained as marble cutters and carvers. After Giuseppe died in 1910, his six sons carved for thirty more years.
They lived in a brownstone on 142nd Street in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx and set up a stone-carving atelier next to their home that would eventually occupy an entire city block. [https://www.nypl.org/about/history/piccirilli-brothers]
Philadelphia – Hermon MacNeil – Soldiers And Sailors Monument Sailors side – Being photographed by Dan Leininger, webmaster).
Two of the MacNeil monuments shaped by the hands of these five Italian family are:
- The colossal Soldiers and Sailors Monuments (click here) on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and
General George Washington with Flags (U.S. and POW/MIA) ~ Washington Arch Greenwich, NYC (Photo courtesy of: Gibson Shell – 2011)
- The George Washington: Commander in Chief, on the Washington Arch in New York City.
1916 Photo of the installation of the MacNeil statue. Thia appears to have the statue sitting in the right hand leg of the Arch. The left leg is where it was permanently installed. This photo was salvaged from a NYC flea market by John Gomez and used with his permission Credit: John Gomez, NYC. The Piccirilli’s were specialists who would take a clay statue designed by a sculptor and exactly reproduce it in marble stone. They were expert stone-carvers proficient in marble. Carrara in Tuscany, Italy was a major source of Italian Marble.
- Title: Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
- Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866 – 1947)
- Year: 1921; installed 1927; relocated 1954–1955
- Location: Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 20th Street
- Medium: Two pylons, Tennessee marble, on granite bases
- Dimensions: Each pylon: height 40′; width 13’3″; depth 10” (base height 11″; width 10’6″; depth 10’9″)
- Themes: The Civil War, War Memorials
Commissioned and owned by the City of Philadelphia
~~~
