ZOCCHI, Emilio

(b. 1835 Firenze, d. 1913 Firenze)

Italian sculptor. He studied with Girolamo Torrini (1795-1853), Aristodemo Costoli (1803-1871) and Giovanni Dupré. He is best known for his busts, bas-reliefs and statuettes of classical and Renaissance individuals. He is also renowned for his genre studies executed in great detail. His most famous work is his marble study of the young Michelangelo (Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence). He was also commissioned to produce the bas relief decoration on the façade of Santa Croce, Florence.

He was the teacher of his son Arnoldo Zocchi (1862-1940) and his cousin Cesare Zocchi (1851-1922).

Michelangelo

Emilio Zocchi’s best-known work was his much copied Michelangelo Giovinetto, which showed the artistic genius as a young boy wearing a sculptor’s apron as he bends low in concentration over a carved head, hammer and chisel in hand. Here Zocchi portrays the great Renaissance sculptor in maturity.

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The Young Michelangelo

The statue shows the boy Michelangelo chiseling the faun’s head in the art school of the Medici gardens at San Marco in Florence.

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Young Christopher Columbus Gazing Out at Sea

The statue represents the youthful Christopher Columbus, gazing out at the seas he would conquer en route to the New World. The original marble was carved in 1864 by the virtuoso Florentine sculptor Emilio Zocchi and probably exhibited in the Americas for the first time at the International Exhibition of Santiago, Chile in 1875.

The statue is signed and dated: ZOCCHI. F. 1868.

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Young Peasant Couple

The alabaster group represents a boy seated on a rocky mound, comforting a girl, on a naturalistic base.

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