Carved white marble, nicely rendered larger than life size bust of a bearded gentleman in formal attire, mounted upon a round marble pedestal base, incised signature "G. Trentanove / Florence / Italy" to verso.

30 3/4 x 25 3/4 x 18 in.

Born in Florence, Italy, Gaetano Trentanove was the son of a goldsmith and studied at the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts, and was a pupil of Italian sculptor Giovanni Dupré (1817-1882). For the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Trentanove sculpted a large white marble sculpture, "Otriade" or "Last of the Spartans." William E. Cramer, ed­i­tor of the Evening Wis­con­sin, pur­chased the Spar­tan statue for the Lay­ton Art Gallery in Mil­wau­kee.
This patronage proved pivotal for Trentanove's career, as he would go on to settle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, teach classes at the Lay­ton Art Gallery, and open a thriving sculpture studio in Milwaukee. Trentanove would spend most of his career there and in Italy working on many private portrait commissions, public figural monuments, funerary and memorial sculptures throughout the United States. In 1897, Trentanove was awarded the Order of the Crown of Italy, Knight.

Overall good estate condition; some chips to nose and to underside edge of jacket; some scattered surface marks and scuffs; two areas of filler to at posterior mounting.

$2,000 - 3,000