As part of celebrations marking the centenary of the death of Prince Albert I, the Monegasque State commissioned Giuseppe Ducrot to produce this monumental work in white ceramic. Standing a little over five metres tall and some three metres wide, the piece has a bust of the Scholar Prince at its cen...
As part of celebrations marking the centenary of the death of Prince Albert I, the Monegasque State commissioned Giuseppe Ducrot to produce this monumental work in white ceramic. Standing a little over five metres tall and some three metres wide, the piece has a bust of the Scholar Prince at its centre. The artwork is installed on the façade of the Chapelle de la Visitation, on the narrow street known as Ruelle Chanoine Franzi, which links two of the Prince’s best-known creations - the Oceanographic Museum and the Lycée Albert Ier. In 1910, the Prince converted the old Convent of the Visitation into a new secular school, the Lycée de Monaco, and inaugurated what became known as the “Temple of the Sea” as a showcase for the treasures discovered on his oceanographic expeditions. The monument stands as a reminder of Prince Albert I’s hugely important contribution to the fields of education, science, and the arts. H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince and H.R.H. the Princess of Hanover officially unveiled the monumental work on 11 October 2023, at a ceremony with the artist present.
Born in Rome in 1966, Giuseppe Ducrot discovered a talent for drawing at a very young age and held his first exhibition at just 14. He studied at the studio of painter Giovanni Colacicchi and learned the art of sculpture from Vito Cipolla. The Italian artist is descended from an illustrious family responsible for founding the celebrated Studio Ducrot, specialising in decorative art and design. Ducrot became famous for his use of religious iconography inspired by the classical art of imperial Rome, and by Greek and Baroque sculpture. Both figurative and ornamental, Giuseppe Ducrot’s ceramic pieces are firmly contemporary. The artist also works with marble, lost-wax bronze, and terracotta. Ducrot is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon, and has produced numerous works for the Vatican.
