Vincenzo Vela
Vincenzo Vela (May 3 1820 - October 3 1891) was a Swiss sculptor, active mainly in northern Italy.
He was born in the village of Ligornetto in Ticino, where a museum today collects much of his works. In 1832 he moved to Milan in Italy, where he frequented the Brera Academy and worked in the marble sculptor corporation of the Duomo di Milano.
His first commissions came in the 1840s. In 1847 he moved to Rome, where he executed one of his most famous work, the Spartacus now at Ligornetto. Six years later he moved to Turin, to teach in the local Accademia Albertina. His other notable works include the monument to the Sardinian Army and that to the painter Antonio Allegri, best known as Coreggio, visible in the latter's omonymous city.
He died at Mendrisio aged 71.