Francesco Nagni
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Francesco Nagni (7 February 1897–11 July 1977) was a 20th-century Italian figurative sculptor, best known for the grave of Pope Pius XI in the Vatican.
He was born in Viterbo on 7 February 1897.
He spent almost his entire life in Rome first studying at the Academy of Saint Luca. After the First World War, working as an assistant in the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome he worked on several state works under the fascist regime of Mussolini. These included the monument to Armando Diaz in Naples and many war memorials to Italians killed in the war.
He was involved in the artists group at Villa Strohl Fern in Rome. From around 1940 he started to receive commissions from the Vatican and his work is now represented in St Peter's Basilica, His work would have requited multiple meets with both the Pope and other senior church officials.[1] His works are not only on the public side within the church but notably includes the tomb of Pope Pius XI in the crypts.[2]
He died in Rome on 11 July 1977 aged 80.
Around 2000 Nagni's family donated 34 plaster casts by Nagni to the Museum of Viterbo most of which stand in the Sacred Art section. These are the moulds from which his various bronze works were cast.
Recognition
In Viterbo, his birthplace the municipality has named a street near the railway station after Nagni: Via Francesco Nagni.[3]
