This sculpture depicts Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin friar, wearing the ceremonial liturgical chasuble. Born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, in the region of Campania, and ordained in the town of his birth, he was sent to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo in Apulia. He remained there until his death in 1...
This sculpture depicts Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin friar, wearing the ceremonial liturgical chasuble. Born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, in the region of Campania, and ordained in the town of his birth, he was sent to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo in Apulia. He remained there until his death in 1968. Padre Pio is greatly venerated, particularly in southern Italy. He was beatified in 1999 and canonised by Pope John Paul II on 16 June 2002 in Saint Peter’s Square, Rome. The sculpture was donated by the Padre Pio Foundation to the Church of the Sacred Heart in Monaco, in accordance with the wishes of its founder, Mr Sylvain Cucchi, on the Foundation’s 50th anniversary.
French artist Greta Alessio was born on 28 June 1942 in Monaco. After devoting her adolescent years to dance, she attended ceramics classes at the Bosio Pavilion in Monaco-Ville. A passion for ceramics led her to take a serious interest in sculpture starting in the 1980s. She travelled to Carrara and Pietrasanta, where she taught herself the techniques of working with terracotta, then bronze and finally marble. She subsequently split her time between Monaco and the small town of Pietrasanta, where she produced her works ( Fonderia Del Chiaro , Fonderia Mariani and Laboratorio Henraux ). The first exhibition of her work was held in Monaco in April 1992. An admirer of Michelangelo and abstract Japanese sculpture, her style is varied and her favourite themes include the circus, dance and mythology. The Greta Alessio Prize awarded at the Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival bears witness to one of her preferred subjects. Two of the artist’s other works can be seen on the sculpture path: Padre Pio and The Fish .
