Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/tomaso-sani

Birth Place

Florence, Italy

Biography

Tomaso Sani was born in Florence, Italy, in 1839. While little is known of his early activities, he was said to have served in Garibaldi’s ‘Expedition of the Thousand’ in 1860. In 1864, Sani was an assistant in the studio of Florentine sculptor, Enrico Pazzi (1819-1899) whose works included a monumental statue of Dante(1865) in the Piazza Santa Croce, Florence. In 1876, Sani was active in New Zealand, working with fellow Italian Luigi del Vescovo, who exhibited a portrait bust of the recently deceased parliamentarian Dr Isaac Featherstone in Wellington in September.Sani and Vescovo departed New Zealand 20 July 1877, bound for Melbourne, where they hoped to secure a commission for a monument to the Irish patriot, Dan O’Connell. This was the first of several speculative proposals for commemorative sculpture with which Sani was associated, the passage of his career in Australia being marked by designs and maquettes as much as by completed works. By September 1877, Sani and Vescovo had opened a studio on Swanston Street, Melbourne, where they displayed a maquette of the projected O’Connell monument, along with a portrait bust of Signora Marinucci, the wife of the Italian Consul, and a relief of the Madonna with the infant Christ and St. John. In 1879, Sani and Vescovo were invited to submit work for the Sydney International Exhibition and modelled an allegorical group, Advance Australia. At the same time, they sought income from the sale of Italian marble mantelpieces and the display of waxworks on Biblical themes at theatres in Sydney and Melbourne. Sani’s earliest recorded independent work was his Welcome, exhibited at the Melbourne International Exhibition (1 October 1880–30 April 1881) in the Italian sculpture section. By early 1881, Sani was living in Phillip St, Sydney. Continuing to seek commissions for commemorative sculpture, he presented a bust, modelled from a photograph, of the recently assassinated US President Garfield at a September public meeting honouring the late leader. Following the death of Garibaldi on 2 June 1882, Sani again presented a bust of the deceased at a public commemorative meeting. A newspaper illustration showed the enormous bust, which Sani executed in six days, towering above the audience at the Garden Palace. On 8 May 1882, a contract valued at £800 was let for sculpted decoration on the Pitt St facade of the new Sydney General Post Office (GPO), a project under the direction of Government Architect James Barnet. The winner of the contract awarded the work to Sani, his first major sculptural commission in Australia. In August 1883, Sani’s GPO reliefs were completed. Executed in the anecdotal realist style then common among Italian sculptors, they depicted figures in contemporary costume undertaking everyday tasks such as banking and mail delivery. Objections to the vernacular character of the sculptures were quickly raised and a significant early controversy around public art ensued. In February 1884, the New South Wales Cabinet accepted a Parliamentary Committee report recommending the removal of the sculptures. Barnet submitted detailed objections in May 1884. Citing numerous art works, articles and books as his authorities, Barnet made a case against what he called the ‘pseudo-classical’ style and advocated a realism illustrative of ‘the customs and costumes of the present day’. Word of the controversy spread as far as London, however Sani’s sculptures remained in place. On 16 August 1884, Sani married Marie Louise Barry, of Melbourne. A daughter was later born to the couple. With the mixed success of the GPO sculptures behind him, Sani sought further commissions. In July 1884, he submitted a maquette to a competition for a statue of Queen Victoria; it was reported that his proposal elicited laughter from the judges. In August, he designed a figure of Mercury astride a globe emblazoned ‘Advance Australia’ for the new offices of Maitland Mercury newspaper. Sani exhibited in the New South Wales (NSW) court at the 1888 Centennial International Exhibition in Melbourne, presenting a giant bust of Captain Cook. Sani had by this time caught the attention of politician Henry Parkes, a keen advocate of public sculpture, some of whose terms as Premier of NSW (1878-83, 1887-89, 1889-91) coincided with state-funded commissions to the artist. In 1887, Sani executed a terracotta statuette of Parkes. In 1888, Sani experienced a significant professional setback; a Supreme Court case which pitted him against a fellow sculptor Angelo Tornaghi. Their dispute centred on the fabrication of a Centennial sculpture (a ‘colonial group’) for the Australian Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Sani sought to recover fees for work he had undertaken, while Tornaghi claimed he had earned the commission fee as Sani was unable to complete the sculpture. Sani’s initial victory was overturned on appeal, leaving him owing damages of over £1328. In spite of a benefit staged for the artist by the Italian Club, Sani declared bankruptcy in May 1889 and in July advertised the sale, without reserve, of a sculpture in Carrara marble, Child at play, ‘suitable for lawn, entrance hall, &c’. Circumstances soon improved; Sani built a studio in Annandale in 1890 and in 1891 received a commission from Parkes for a bronze statue for Centennial Park. The sculpture, We won!, represents a youthful footballer, atop a pedestal decorated with light-hearted reliefs of putti playing rugby. The sculpture did not excite the controversy of the GPO reliefs, however at least one correspondent to the Sydney Morning Herald lamented the erection of ‘this freak’ in the park. Installed in 1893, overlooking the playing fields, the sculpture is one of only a few of the original 37 sculptures in Centennial Park to have survived the rigors of time, vandalism and changing taste. (The work was removed from the park after damage in 1972 and restored and reinstated in 1988.) While it is predated by modest tabletop sculptures of the motif produced in the England and the US, We won! is possibly the first monumental sculpture of a footballer erected anywhere in the world. Sani benefited further from the patronage of Barnet and Parkes in the early 1890s. They took a close interest in his work and both visited his studio to view works in progress. Additional carved stone sculptures of NSW pioneers Allan Cunningham, W C Wentworth and Sir John Robertson were commissioned by them for the Lands Building (Bridge St, Sydney), again designed by Barnet. The Government Architect’s impassioned support of the artist during the GPO controversy, and his continued patronage of Sani afterwards, suggests that Barnet saw the sculptor as forging a modern realist style appropriate to a dynamic colonial culture. This period of public patronage was short-lived, however, ending with the retirement of Barnet, a change of state government and the death of Parkes. In 1895, Sani again declared bankruptcy. No records of his activity as a sculptor after this time have been located. On 28 August 1915, Sani died at his home at 5 Brown St, Paddington. Writers: Ellmoos, Laila Chris McAuliffe Date written: 2010 Last updated: 2012

Born

b. 1839

Summary

Italian-born sculptor Tomaso Sani, along with Luigi del Vescovo, was responsible for the controversial basso-relievo carvings on Sydney's General Post Office in 1883. He carved statues of Allan Cunningham, Sir John Robertson and William Charles Wentworth for the Lands Department Building in 1892.

Gender

Male

Died

28-Aug-15

Age at death

76