Leo Lentelli

History

His long-limbed figures with hair and draperies in loose frills like seaweed made striking fountain statues and lent themselves well to architectural decoration. The surfaces were left rough for the sake of variety of texture and to give an effect of spontaneity. He also participated as a sculptor in the city's artistic renewal, which took place after the 1906 earthquake and fire. While in San Francisco he taught at the California School of Fine Arts. Significant works from this period include the Five Symbolic Figures at the Old Main Library elevated above the street entrance of the Larkin Street entrance. Still a resident of San Francisco, he made the ornament for the Orpheum Theater, then known as the Historic American Theater, at Saint Louis and created two-figure groups depicting pioneers on the Dennis Sullivan Gateway at Denver, Colorado.

Returning to New York City, he began teaching at the Art Students League. He also taught at the Cooper Union and became an academician of the National Academy of Design. Lentelli gained fame through his The Savior with Sixteen Angels for the reredos at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, as well as his public sculpture for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. Among his important works are an equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia (collaboration with Henry Shrady), and a 1932 monument to Cardinal Gibbons located north of Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. A benignity is achieved in the latter, its decorative element accented in the carved chair and graceful folds of the cassock. During the New Deal, Lentelli created four statues for the Post Office in Oyster Bay, Long Island, dated 1937: a terracotta bust of Theodore Roosevelt, two terracotta panels and ornamentation at the base of the flagpole. In the same period, he also created sculpture for the post office of North East, Pennsylvania. His statue of Apollo and a musical muse, located in a lunette of Steinway Hall on 57th Street in New York City, was covered when the building was sold, but is again on display. Other ornamental figures include Bagnante, a Diana, and Leda. In addition to figures, Lentelli sculpted panels and bas-reliefs for many distinguished buildings. He ornamented a frieze on the Free Academy building at Corning, New York, with a panel of children's figures. Lentelli's bas-reliefs on the International Building at Rockefeller Center are considered among his most important works.

Among Leo Lentelli's marks of recognition are the 1922 Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York and gold medal at the National Academy of Design exhibition in 1927. He was a fellow of the National Sculpture Society, an associate member of the National Academy of Design and a member of the Architectural League of New York. In 1955, Lentelli retired to Italy and died on December 31, 1961, in Rome.

The Charlottesville Robert E Lee statue was removed in 2021 in the aftermath of riots before being melted down in 2023.

== Other works ==

Though best known for his work at Rockefeller Center in New York City, he created sculpture which can be seen at a number of other locations, including the following:

• Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina
• United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC
• U.S. General Service Administration, Washington, DC
• Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
• The Archer, San Francisco Museum of Art
• Pennsylvania Academy of Design
• Cathedral Church of Christ the King, Kalamazoo, Michigan
• Liberty Building, Buffalo, New York (the twin statues of liberty facing east and west atop the roof)
• The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida

== Images ==

File:Leo Lentilli Five Symbolic Figures.jpg|Five Symbolic Figures at the Old San Francisco Public Library File:Lentelli Rockefeller Center.JPG|Bas reliefs representing the four continents at Rockefeller Center File:Lentelli Steinway Building.JPG |Apollo and musical muse, Steinway Hall, New York City File:Lentelli Faun.JPG|Faun, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina File:Orpheum St. Louis.jpg|Lentelli ornamentation of Orpheum Theater, St. Louis, Missouri File:Didier Pasquette BIWNY 1.jpg|Didier Pasquette walking a tightrope between the twin statues atop the Liberty Building in downtown Buffalo, New York, 2010

== Notes ==

== External links ==

• Views of Lentelli's bronze statue of Cardinal Gibbons
• Description of Statue of Purity in progress by Leo Lentelli, location Times Square, NY, NY
• Alfred Eisentadt's 1939 photo of Lentelli's American Beauties, World's Fair, New York, NY

[[Category:American modern sculptors]] [[Category:Art Students League of New York faculty]] [[Category:1879 births]] [[Category:1961 deaths]] [[Category:San Francisco Art Institute faculty]] [[Category:American architectural sculptors]] [[Category:American male sculptors]] [[Category:Italian emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:20th-century American sculptors]] [[Category:20th-century American male artists]] [[Category:Treasury Relief Art Project artists]] [[Category:National Sculpture Society members]] [[Category:Sculptors from New York (state)]]

References

1. Naylor, Natalie A.. "The Legacy of New Deal Art on Long Island". The Long Island Historical Journal.
2. Proske, Beatrice Gilman. (1968). "Brookgreen Garden Sculpture". Privately published.
3. Helena, Julia. "The Sculptors: Leo Lentelli". H.S. Crocker.
4. "Biographies". Museum Planet Historical Biographies and Dictionary.
5. (June 18, 2007). "Leo Lentelli: A Sculptor of the City Beautiful". San Francisco Public Library, Art, Music and Recreation Center.
6. LaGumina, Salvatore John. (2000). "The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia". Taylor and Francis.
7. "About the Theater". The Roberts Orpheum Theater.
8. "Artists". Artnet.
9. "James Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Statue". Knights of Columbus Museum.
10. Proske, Beatrice Gilman. (1968). "Brookgreen Garden Sculpture". Privately published.
11. Neus, Nora. (26 October 2023). "Robert E Lee statue that sparked Charlottesville riot is melted down: 'Like his face was crying' {{!}} Virginia {{!}} The Guardian".