Sculptor, son of Arch. Giovanni Rutelli, known Italian architect and highly competitive building contractor-entrepreneur of the 19th century (i.e. technical oversight of the entire construction of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the 3rd largest lyric theatre in all of Europe), Mario studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo and then in Rome under Giulio Monteverde.
Rutelli’s masterwork is the “Fontana delle Naiadi” in Piazza della Repubblica, Rome, which Benito Mussolini called the “exaltation of eternal youth, the capital’s first salute to art”. His other works, in Italy and abroad, include: the monument to Anita Garibaldi on the Janiculum; one of the Victories on the Vittoriano in Rome; the bronze Quadriga on the teatro Politeama at Palermo with Apollo (the god of music) and Euterpe (the muse of lyric poetry) above it; the lion at the base of the Garibaldi monument in the Garibaldi garden in Palermo;
the “Lyric” and “Apotheosis of Vittorio Emanuele” at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele; the equestrian monument to Umberto I in Catania; the Fountain and commemorative monument at Agrigento; the Monument to Nicola Spedalieri in the Piazza Sforza Cesarini (near the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome.
Among his surviving works are also the statue of Goethe at Munich, the colossal 22-metre high Victoria Monument in England, and the war memorial in Aberystwyth.
Read More:
1. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Rutelli
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