The sculptor Pietro Magni died on 20 January 1877. Magni was born in Milan in 1817. Magni trained first at the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera, then in the studio of Abbondio Sangiorgio. After 1837, his work was influenced by Tuscan sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini. in 1849 Magni went to Rome to study, but quickly joined Giuseppe Garibaldi in the wars for Italian unification, before returning to Milan to work and to teach at the Academia. Magni often worked from gesso models before executing the marble version, usually in several copies. Many of Magni sculptures stand inside the Duomo of Milan and his monument to Leonardo Da Vinci stands in the Piazza della Scala.
References:
Julius Bryant, ‘Bergonzoli’s Amor degli angeli: the Victorian taste for contemporary Latin Sculpture’, Apollo, CLVI (2002): 16-21.
Silvia Silvestri, “Pietro Magni,” Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Treccani Vol. 67 (2006), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pietro-magni_(Dizionario_Biografico)/
Girl Reading, marble, 1856, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Monument to Leondardo da Vinci, marble, 1872, Piazza della Scala, Milan.
La Fontana della Ninfa Di Aurisina, marble, 1858, Museo del Revoltella, Trieste.
Andromeda, marble, 1852, Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisbon.