Giovanni Maria Benzoni - sculptor

Roman collectors called him the ‘new Canova’

Benzoni's self-portrait bust is in the
Biblioteca Angelo Mai in Bergamo

The sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni, who earned such fame in Rome in the mid-19th century that collectors and arts patrons in the city dubbed him the “new Canova” after the great Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, was born on this day in 1809 in Songavazzo, a small mountain village in northern Lombardy.

Benzoni sculpted many allegorical and mythological scenes, but also busts and funerary monuments.  

Songavazzo being just outside Clusone in the province of Bergamo, Benzoni was regarded as a bergamasco - a native of the ancient city - even though he spent much of his life in Rome.

As such he was held in similar regard to celebrated bergamaschi such as the composer Gaetano Donizetti, the philologist Cardinal Angelo Mai and the painter Francesco Coghetti, all of whom lived in Rome during Benzoni’s time there.

He was later commissioned to sculpt a monumental tomb for Cardinal Mai in the Basilica of Sant’Anastasia al Palatino in the centre of Rome.

Benzoni’s parents, Giuseppe and Margherita, were farmers of modest means. Giovanni Maria worked briefly as a shepherd, but his father died when he was around 11 years old, after which he was sent to work in his uncle’s small carpentry shop at Riva di Solto, on the western shore of Lago d’Iseo, about 25km (16 miles) away.

Benzoni's Flight from Pompeii is
notable for its extraordinary realism

He began to show a talent for carving religious statues which came to the attention of a wealthy patron called Giuseppe Fontana, who was impressed enough to speak about him to Count Luigi Tadini, who would later open the Tadini Academy of Fine Arts in Lovere, another town on Lago d’Iseo.

Tadini asked Benzoni to make a copy of the Stele Tadini, the sculpture made for him by Antonio Canova in memory of the count’s son Faustino, who had died at a young age.

He was so impressed by Benzoni’s attention to detail and the accuracy of the reproduction that he arranged for the young man, who had never had a formal education, to attend a college in Lovere. 

When he reached the age of 18 or 19, Tadini took Benzoni to Rome, where he would work in the workshop of Giuseppe Fabris - an artist who would later became director general of the Vatican museums - and attend the prestigious Accademia di San Luca, where his fees were paid by Count Tadini.

Benzoni’s elegant marble sculptures had echoes of Canova’s work, which he greatly admired. One of his earliest pieces sculpted at the Academy, entitled Silent Love, attracted the approval of wealthy buyers in Rome, who soon began to speak of him as “il novello Canova” - the new Canova. 

After winning several competitions at San Luca, Benzoni began to earn money for his work and opened a small studio in Via Sant'Isidoro, in the centre of Rome, off the street now called Via Vittorio Veneto. Demand for his work grew so rapidly that he was obliged to find bigger premises, first in Via del Borghetto and later in Via del Babuino, between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo.

Benzoni's bust of his former patron,
Count Luigi Tadini, in Lovere

At the peak of his fame, he employed more than 50 assistants, making multiple versions of his most popular works. His Cupid and Psyche (1845) and Veiled Rebecca (1863) are considered to be two of his greatest triumphs.  Benzoni had clients in Holland, France, England and Ireland as well as in Italy.  

One of his later works, Flight from Pompeii or The Last Days of Pompeii (1868), was inspired by his visits to the Naples region in the 1850s and 1860s, when he was moved by the capacity for destruction of the volcano Vesuvius. The sculpture depicts with notable realism a man, his wife and their baby child, the man holding a cloak above his head to try to protect the trio as they seek refuge from the falling ashes.

The original was made for the wife of a wealthy New York hotelier. Among the many copies Benzoni produced, one is housed in a museum in Australia, another in the Neoclassical-style Town Hall at Todmorden, in the English county of Yorkshire.

Benzoni, who married into a noble Roman family and had six children, always lived in Rome but returned regularly to Bergamo, where he became a member of the city’s university and donated busts of famous citizens. His own self-portrait bust is in the Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai on Piazza Vecchia in Bergamo’s mediaeval Città Alta.

He sculpted a statue of his former patron, Count Tadini, which stands on a plinth in a lakeside garden opposite the Tadini Academy in Lovere.

After his death in 1873, the popularity of Benzoni’s work declined, in common with the Neoclassical style as the newlly unified-Italy began to look forward. It has enjoyed a revival in recent years, however. Among his most famous works, his 1861 sculpture Innocenza difesa dalla fedeltà (Innocence Defended by Loyalty), which shows a young girl removing a thorn from the paw of her faithful pet dog, sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2001 for more than $84,000 (€77,800; £66,800) and was presented as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Torre dell'orologio is one of several
notable buildings in the town of Clusone

Travel tip:

Benzoni’s birthplace, Songavazzo, is just outside the town of Clusone, about 35km (22 miles) northeast of Bergamo, a beautiful small town nestling on a plain against the backdrop of the Alpi Orobie - sometimes translated as the Orobic Alps - which attracts visitors all year round. Apart from its proximity to ski resorts, Clusone is famous for the frescoes that decorate some of its most significant buildings, such as the Municipio (Town Hall), the Torre dell'orologio (Clock Tower) and the Oratorio dei Disciplini (Oratory of the Disciplines), which has a macabre offering entitled The Triumph of Death. Clusone is also home to a prestigious annual jazz festival.

The Palazzo Tadini in Lovere on Lago d'Iseo is
home of the Accademia di Belle Arti Tadini

Travel tip:

Lovere, where Benzoni received his first formal education, is the largest town on the western shore of Lago d’Iseo  and has wonderful views of the top of the lake with its dramatic backdrop of mountains. Benzoni’s patron, Count Luigi Tadini of Crema, established the Accademia di Belle Arti Tadini in the lakefront Palazzo Tadini in 1829 and it has become one of the most important art galleries in Italy. The church of Santa Maria in Valvendra has some 16th century frescoes and the church of San Giorgio, which is built into a mediaeval tower, contains an important work by Palma il Giovane. A pleasant boat ride connects Lovere with Pisogne on the eastern shore of the lake, which has a railway line linking the lake with the city of Brescia. The landing stage adjoins Piazza XIII Martiri.

Also on this day:

1665: The death of painter and printmaker Elisabetta Sirani

1909: The birth of Lamberto Maggiorani, star of classic movie Bicycle Thieves

1938: The birth of journalist and talk show host Maurizio Costanza

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Carlo Ubbiali - motorcycle world champion

Racer from Bergamo won nine GP titles

(This article was written in 2017; sadly, Ubbiali passed away in 2020 at the age of 90)

Carlo Ubbiali, who preceded Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi as Italy’s first great motorcycling world champion, was born on this day in 1929 in Bergamo.

Ubbiali, racing a bike equipped with subsequently outlawed
'dustbin' fairing, in action at his peak in the 1950s

Between 1951 and 1960, he won nine Grand Prix titles, in the 250cc and 125cc categories, setting a record for the most world championships that was equalled by Britain’s Mike Hailwood in 1967 but not surpassed until Agostini won the 10^th of his 15 world titles in 1971.

Ubbiali is the second oldest surviving Grand Prix champion after Britain’s Cecil Sandford, who was his teammate in the 1950s. Ubbiali’s compatriot Agostini, who came from nearby Lovere, in Bergamo province, is 75.

Ubbiali won a total of 39 Grand Prix races, all bar two of them for the MV Agusta team.  Three times – in 1956, 1959 and 1960 – he was world champion in 125cc and 250cc classes, and on no fewer than five occasions, including both categories in 1956, he won the title with the maximum number of points possible under the scoring system.

He was also a five-times winner at the prestigious Isle of Man TT festival and six-times Italian champion.

Even at the age of 71, pictured here riding in a MV Agusta
reunion event, Ubbiali had not lost his skills

Unlike many of his contemporaries in a sport that was even more dangerous in his era than it is today, Ubbiali retired in 1960 without ever having suffered a major crash.

During his active years, motorcycle Grand Prix races claimed 34 fatalities in competition. He had just lost his brother, Maurizio, and was also planning a wedding when he decided to call time, reasoning that motorcycle racing was not a suitable career for a prospective husband and father.

Ubbiali was familiar with bikes from an early age, thanks to his father, who sold and maintained motorcycles from his workshop/showroom in Bergamo.

He competed for the first time in the Coppa di Bergamo in 1946, alongside brothers Maurizio and Franco, and won, although it was a triumph tainted by tragedy.  Following the post-race celebrations, two family friends were killed in an accident on their way home.

Ubbiali’s relationship with MV Agusta began in 1948, when his father obtained the rights to sell the bikes from his showroom. The company – Meccanica Verghera Agusta – was a new and ambitious enterprise set up in a small town northwest of Milan, as a postwar offshoot of the Agusta aviation company.

Carlo Ubbiali, pictured in 2010

Invited to take part in some trial races for MV Agusta, Ubbiali impressed enough that, after finishing second in a race to mark the re-opening of the Monza circuit – badly damaged during the Second World War – he earned a place on their team in the inaugural GP world championship in 1949, making his debut in the Swiss GP

In the same year he won the gold medal at the prestigious International Six-Day Time Trial, on that occasion held in Wales.

Soon in demand, he accepted an offer to ride for FB-Mondial, which was the most successful manufacturer at the time and after scoring his first race victory in the Ulster GP of 1950 Ubbiali was crowned 125cc world champion for the first time in 1951, winning a five-race series.  It was a reflection of how Italy dominated motorcycle racing at the time that 12 of the 17 riders who took part were Italian.

Beaten to the 1952 title by Sandford, he accepted MV Agusta’s offer to join the Englishman in their garage the following year, beginning a relationship with the team that would yield eight world titles in six seasons between 1955 and 1960.

Ubbiali’s racing style earned him the nickname “The Fox” on the basis that he was a cunning tactician, content to bide his time in a race while he studied the behaviour and tactics of his opponents, before attacking in the final stages.

In an era that was much less politically correct than today, he was also known as Il Cinesino - “The Little Chinaman” – on account of nothing more than his physical appearance, quite small and with almond shaped eyes.

Nine times a winner of what was then called the Nations Grand Prix on his home circuit at Monza, he finished his career there by winning in both the 125cc and 250cc categories, which gave him the title in both classes for the second year running.

After his retirement, he took over the running of his father’s business in Bergamo and continued to attend motorcycle events in consultancy roles.  He was also instrumental, through his friendship with Count Domenico Agusta, the company’s co-owner, in securing a place for a then 21-year-old Agostini on the MV Agusta team,

Ubbiali was indicted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame in 2001.

Bergamo's Piazza Vecchia is a beautiful square

Travel tip:

Bergamo, situated 40km (25 miles) northeast of Milan, is in a way two cities in one.  Its historic heart, perched on a ridge, is the Città Alta, which boasts many examples of magnificent architecture of the 12^th century onwards; spreading out below is the vast expanse of the Città Bassa, more modern but with an elegance of its own.  The old, upper city is surrounded by impressively forbidding walls, built by the Venetians in the 16^th century and granted UNESCO Heritage Site status in 2017. The Città Alta, with the beautiful Piazza Vecchia at its core, is small and can be explored easily on foot; the Città Bassa and suburbs cover a broad area of around 500,000 residents.

Motorcycles on display at Museo Agusto

Travel tip:

Examples of MV Agusta’s historic motorcycles can be seen at the fascinating Museo Agusta at the company’s original headquarters in Cascina Costa, a district of Samarate, about 45km (28 miles) northwest of Milan. Agusta was formerly a aviation company manufacturing helicopters and continued to do so until it disappeared in a merger in 2000. The motorcycle manufacturing offshoot is now based in Varese.  The museum is open on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and both in the morning and afternoon on Saturday and Sunday, with an entrance fee of just €2.50 (€1.50 concessions).

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Giacomo Agostini - world motorcycle champion

Lovere exhibition commemorates record-breaking career 

Giacomo Agostini

Giacomo Agostini, 15 times Grand Prix world motorcycling champion, celebrates his 74th birthday today.

Born on this day in 1942 in Brescia, Agostini moved with his family to the lakeside town of Lovere when he was 13 and his career is being commemorated with a month-long exhibition at the Accademia Tadini, which overlooks the picturesque Lago d'Iseo.

The exhibition is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Agostini's first world championship in 1966.

Riding for the Italian MV Agusta team, Agostini won the 500cc class seven times in a row from 1966 to 1972 and the 350cc class seven times in succession from 1968 to 1974, adding a further 500cc title on a Yamaha in 1975.

His total of 122 Grand Prix wins from 1965 to 1976 is the highest by any rider in the history of the sport, although his fellow Italian, 37-year-old Valentino Rossi, is now only eight behind on 114 following his victory in the Catalan GP on June 5.

Agostini, considered perhaps the greatest motorcycle racer of all time, was at the peak of his powers between 1967 and 1970.

In 1967, he won an epic duel with his former MV Agusta teammate, Britain's Mike Hailwood, who was riding for Honda.  They were tied on five race wins each going into the final GP of the season in Canada, where Hailwood won, with his rival second.  That meant they were tied on points and wins, but Agostini had a greater number of second place finishes and so he was crowned champion.

For the next three seasons, after Hailwood left motorcycle racing to race cars, Agostini dominated, winning every race in which he competed in 350cc and 500cc classes, equalling Hailwood's record for most wins in a single year in 1970 when he was first in 19 races.

Agostini also won 10 races at the Isle of Man TT, the most by any non-British rider. It might have been more but he decided to quit TT racing in 1972 after his close friend, Gilberto Parlotti, was killed during the event.

Giacomo Agostini (No 1) in action at Riccione in 1969.
His great rival Mike Hailwood is No 63.

The only Italian to win the prestigious Daytona 200 race in America - he was victorious in 1974 - Agostini retired in 1977 at the age of 35 after competing in the 1977 British GP at Silverstone.  He had a season driving in Formula One cars for Williams in 1980 but then switched to management, where he enjoyed more success.

As team manager for Marlboro Yamaha, he won three 500cc world titles with the Californian rider Eddie Lawson.  Agostini also managed for Cagiva and Honda before retiring in 1995.

The eldest of four brothers, Giacomo Agostini was only 11 when he rode a moped for the first time and knew immediately he wanted to race motorcycles.  His father Aurelio, a local government employee in Lovere, wanted him to become an accountant but allowed him to pursue his dream after seeking counsel from a lawyer who was a family friend.

The lawyer told him he thought sport would be good for Giacomo's character and only later did Aurelio find out that his friend had misunderstood him and believed Giacomo wanted to take up cycling.  His mother, Maria Vittoria, ensured that when he raced he always carried in his helmet a medal showing the image of Pope John XXIII, who hailed from Sotto il Monte, a small village which, like Lovere, is in the Lombardy province of Bergamo.

The exhibition at the Tadini Academy, which runs until July 3, is called Giacomo Agostini: The Golden Age.  Sponsored by a local furnace manufacturer, Forni Industriali Bendotti, as part of their 100th anniversary celebrations, the exhibition includes many mementos of his career, including the suits and helmets he wore in his first and last races.  For more details, visit www.accedemiatadini.it

Visitors can also admire - in Lovere's Piazza XIII Martiri - an artwork featuring one of Agostini's bikes by the Milan architect Mauro Piantelli entitled "Of the Brave and his Steed".

Travel tip:

Brescia is a town of great artistic and architectural importance with Roman remains and well-preserved Renaissance buildings. Next to the 17th century Duomo is an older cathedral, the unusually shaped Duomo Vecchio, also known as la Rotonda. The Santa Giulia Museo della Citta covers more than 3000 years of Brescia’s history, housed within the Benedictine Nunnery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia in Via Musei.

Palazzo Tadini in Lovere is currently hosting an exhibition
dedicated to the career of Giacomo Agostini

Travel tip:

Lovere is the largest town on the western shore of Lago d’Iseo  and has wonderful views of the top of the lake with its dramatic backdrop of mountains. Art lovers will be interested in the classical Palazzo Tadini, which looks out over the lake from Via Tadini and is home to Accademia Tadini, one of the most important art galleries in Italy. The church of Santa Maria in Valvendra has some 16th century frescoes and the church of San Giorgio, which is built into a medieval tower, contains an important work by Palma il Giovane. You can take the boat from Lovere over to Pisogne on the eastern shore of the lake. The landing stage adjoins Piazza XIII Martiri.

More reading:

Enrico Piaggio: the man behind the iconic Vespa motor scooter

Luigi Fagioli - Formula One's oldest winner

Vittorio Jano: Genius of racing car engineering

(Photo of Giacomo Agostini by Jack de Nijs CC BY-SA 3.0)

More reading:

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