Italian sculptor of the Neoclassical tradition Ignatius Jacometti died on 22 April 1883. He was born on January 16, 1819, in Rome, Italy, the third of five children of Antonio and Anna Maria Lang. He started studying law at the Nazarene College; he later stopped to study art at the Academy of St. Luke in 1835. He taught there and became its director and later President of the board at the Academy four years before his death. Also, in 1870, as director of the Papal Galleries and Museums he played the vital role in registering the artifacts of the museums while making a new inventory.
His studio and his house were both in Piazza Barberini. He executed marble statues (Kiss of Judas and Ecce Homo) for the Scala Santa at St. John Lateran – the Holy Stairs believed that Jesus climbed to be questioned by Pontius Pilate – for which he is most known today
Further reading
Jacometti, Francesco (1892) Vita di Ignazio Jacometti, scultore, Roma: Nuova tip., nell’Orfanotrofio di S. Maria degli Angeli.
Kiss of Judas, St. John Lateran, 1852.
Ecce Homo, St. John Lateran, 1854.
Moses in the Column of the Immacolata, Piazza di Spagna, 1857.
Monument of Pius IX, Piazza san Bartolomeo, 1869.