Pietro Porcelli

Pietro Giacomo Porcelli (30 January 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Italian-born sculptor responsible for many statues in Western Australia, including the Explorers' Monument, and those of C. Y. O'Connor and Alexander Forrest.[1]

Pietro Porcelli
Porcelli working on a statue of C. Y. O'Connor, 1910 or 1911.
A bronze statue of Porcelli by Perth artist Greg James was unveiled in Kings Square, Fremantle, in 1993.

Biography

Born in Bisceglie in the province of Bari, he moved to Sydney with his fisherman father at the age of 8. After initial training at the New South Wales Academy of Art, he furthered his study of sculpture and drawing in Naples, before returning to Fremantle with his father in 1898. Later that year, he completed his first commission – a bust of Sir John Forrest that now stands in the main entrance hall of Parliament House in Perth. His 1902 statue of Alexander Forrest was the first such statue of a prominent public figure to be completed in Perth. He also created the imposing figure which stood atop the seven-storey AMP Chambers at the corner of St George's Tce and William St, which was completed in 1915, but demolished in 1972.

Porcelli also completed war memorials in Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Victoria Park, West Leederville and Moora, and numerous headstones in Karrakatta and Fremantle Cemeteries, including that of Sir John Forrest in 1918.

After a period of work in Melbourne in the 1920s, he returned to Perth in 1939, where he died in 1943. He is buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.[2][3]

Major works
SubjectWorkLocationYear
Sir John ForrestbustParliament House (Forrest Foyer)1898
Alexander ForreststatueStirling Gardens, Perth1902
C. Y. O'ConnorbustMundaring Weir1907
Sir James Lee-SteerebustParliament House (Lee Steere Foyer)1909
C. Y. O'ConnorstatueFremantle Harbour1911
Explorers' MonumentmonumentFremantle1913
Australian Mutual Provident Societybronze emblemPerth (now moved to Floreat Waters)1925
Frederick Henry PiessestatueKatanning1916
Head of Christalto-relief marbleexterior of St Patrick's Church, Fremantle
PeacebronzeMidland Railway Workshops
12-panel friezefreestoneSanctuary, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
  • Alexander Forrest
  • C. Y. O'Connor statue
  • Explorers' Monument
  • Frederick Henry Piesse
  • Peace
  • 12-panel frieze
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References
  1. Simon Keane (1988). "Porcelli, Pietro Giacomo (1872–1943)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84437-5
  2. Summary Of Record Information Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Metropolitan Cemeteries Board (1998). Karrakatta Cemetery Historical Walk Trail Archived 20 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
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