Biographical Sketch of Pietro Canonica

Pietro Canonica was born in Moncalieri in 1869. He attended the Accademia Albertina in Turin, in an Italy which had only recently been united into one country and was labouriously engaged in the difficult work of constructing an italian identity. It was in this atmosphere, interwoven with moral and civil obligation, that Pietro Canonica’s aesthetic sense was formed, and he became an attentive and enthusiastic guardian of the italian artistic tradition.
He participated in all the most important national and international exhibitions, in Paris, Venice, London, Rome, Brussels and Petersburg. He was a member of the Accademia di San Luca as well as numerous other foreign and italian academies, and in 1929 was elected to the Italian Accademy and in 1950 he became a life Senator.