Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991), - Papa Giovanni in preghiera ( Paus Johannes in gebed )

GIACOMO MANZU (1908-1991) Pope John in Prayer (Pope John in prayer)
Manzù was born in Bergamo. In art he was self-taught in sculpture; He began working with wood during his military service in Verona in 1928; after a brief stay in Paris he moved to Milan, where architect Giovanni Muzio gave him the commission for the decoration of the chapel of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
In 1939 Manzù began a series of bronze bas-reliefs about the death of Jesus Christ; the works, exhibited in Rome in 1942, drew criticism from both the fascist government and the ecclesiastical authorities. In 1957 he received the commission to design the central doors for the Cathedral of Salzburg; these were completed in bronze in 1959. In 1964 he perhaps completed his most important work: the "Doors of Death" for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the first new doors for the basilica in five hundred years.
In New York stands the famous six-meter-high work Mother and Child.
Also in many other cities around the world there is his monumental work.
He was a friend of Pope John XXIII, hence the sculpture: Pope John in Prayer. This is number 45 of the 99. In the plate it reads: Manzu post mortem