Luigi Fontana

For the American professor, see Luigi Fontana (biogerontologist).

Luigi Fontana (9 February 1827 – 27 December 1908) was an Italian sculptor, painter and architect. He had two sons: Tommaso, who was his pupil, and Margherita.

Biography

He was born at Monte San Pietrangeli, in the Marche, and locally was a pupil of Gaetano Palmaroli, bt then went to study under Tommaso Minardi in Rome. Fontana's uncle of the same name was a prominent architect in the March.

He painted religious subjects for the seminary of Fermo and the church of Santissimi Sacramento in Grottazzolina. He collaborated from 1879 to 1903 with Luigi Fontana and the ornamental painter Nicola Achilli of Montegiorgio (1858 – 1945). He completed the terracotta lions outside the Collegiata di Santi Lorenzo and Biagio in Monte San Pietrangeli. Nicola also helped Fontana in designing and applying the faux marble decorations, and stucco decorations in the Cathedral of Montalto Marche, in the collegiate church of Santa Lucia in Montefiore dell'Aso, in the church of SS. Sacramento e Rosario of Grottazzolina, in the vast abbey of Campofilone, in the Basilica di San Nicola a Tolentino, and other churches in the Marche.

Apart from his native town, his works are present in Rome in the basilicas of Santi Apostoli, San Lorenzo in Damaso, San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Maria sopra Minerva and other palaces, as well as in the cathedrals of Macerata, Montefiascone, and Tivoli.

He also sculpted a life-size solid silver statue of Saint Philip of Agira in Zebbug, Malta. This is a unique 2-metre-high (6.6 ft) statue in classic style used for religious processional purposes with over 36 kg of solid silver. The statue was completed in 1863 and may be viewed at the Catholic parish church of the same town in Malta.