Giannino Castiglioni

• Name — Giannino Castiglioni • Born — 4 May 1884 • Birthplace — Milan, Italy • Field — sculpture, medals • Training — Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera • Movement — Art Nouveau • Died — 27 August 1971 • Place of death — Lierna, Italy

• Illustration — Art Nouveau silver medallion for the Milan International Exhibition 1906; the obverse shows the Simplon Tunnel Giannino Castiglioni was born on 4 May 1884 in Milan, the son of Giacomo Castiglioni and Piera Bergamaschi. His father was director of the Stefano Johnson mint in that city. • Illustration — Giannino Castiglioni's signature Castiglioni studied sculpture under Enrico Butti at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. He first exhibited at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906, where he showed medals, a plaster statue and a painting. Castiglioni first opened a large studio on the Corso di Porta Nuova, and in 1927 he opened a second studio at his house in Lierna, on Lake Como. He married Livia Bolla, with whom he had four children: Livio (b. 1911), Pier Giacomo (b. 1913) and Achille (b. 1918). A daughter named Piera died in her infancy and is memorialised with a funerary sculpture by her father. He died in Lierna on 27 August 1971. • Illustration — Castiglioni family portrait with sons Achille, Livio, and Pier Giacomo (1922)

From 1922 until 1928 Castiglioni worked on the plaster casts for friezes and monumental sculptures for the Palacio Legislativo of Montevideo, Uruguay; these were shipped to Uruguay, and the bronze or marble sculptures were made there. In the Fascist era he worked on sculptures for war cemeteries and monuments to the dead of the First World War, including: the military memorial of Monte Grappa (1935) in the Veneto; the Tempio Ossario di Timau (1937) in the comune of Paluzza, Udine; the military ossuary of Caporetto, now Kobarid, Slovenia; and the war memorial of Redipuglia (1938) in the province of Gorizia. In 1941 he made the tomb of Pope Pius XI in the Vatican Grottoes.