Leonard Marconi

Leonard Marconi was a sculptor and building decorator, professor at the Higher Technical School in Lviv.

Leonard Marconi was born in Warsaw in 1835. His family came from Italy. His grandfather, Leandro Marconi, an architect and painter who taught ornamentation at the Bologna Academy of Arts. His father, Ferrante Marconi (1798–1868), was a sculptor, and his uncle Enrico (Henryk) Marconi was an architect, a prominent representative of neoclassicism in the Congress Poland. His sister Adelaida was married to sculptor Andrzej Pruszyński; his cousins ​​Leandr and Władysław (1848–1915), children of Enrico Marconi, were architects, and Karol Antoni Tytus (1864–1864) was a painter in Florence.

He studied in a non-classical gymnasium in Warsaw and mastered the art of sculpture first in his father's studio and later, in 1856-1858, at the sculptural department of the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw where Konstanty Hegel taught. He continued his studies in 1859-1862 at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome under the guidance of Adamo Tadolini. At that time he participated in two competitions held by the Pantheon Academy. He was awarded a silver medal for his relief "Christ and St. Peter" and a gold medal for his relief "St. Peter's Farewell to St. Paul."

In 1862 Leonard Marconi returned to Warsaw. Initially, he worked with his father and later with Andrzej Pruszyński, husband of his sister Adelaida. During this period, he created about twenty sculptures for various architectural objects, as well as sculptural portraits, religious compositions etc.

In August 1873, Leonard Marconi was appointed extraordinary professor of ornamental drawing and modeling in the Technical Academy in Lviv. From 1877, he became chair and he remained on this position until his death. The drawing and modeling was part of the architectural faculty.  In 1881-82, 1882-83 and 1886-87 he performed the duties of the dean of the department. According to literature, he was the teacher of famous Lviv sculptors Antoni Popiel (1865–1910), Piotr Harasimowicz (1857–1914), Piotr Wojtowicz (1862–1936), painter and sculptor Michał Sozański (1853–1923) and others.

In 1880, Leonard Marconi received an official permit (pol. karta uprawniająca) to perform sculptural works in Lviv. From that time on, he worked profusely in the fields of carving, molding, casting, sculpture restoration and sculptural decoration.

He had a large studio in the main building of the Lviv Polytechnic. He enlisted cooperation of sculptors from Lviv and other cities, including Michał Stefan Korpal, a sculptor from Krakow (1854, Krakow — 1915, Pelhřimov, now Czechia), whom Marconi invited in 1874 to make decorations for the Lviv Polytechnic building; Gabriel Krasucki (1837, Warsaw — 1885, Lviv), who did not have his own studio and worked in local sculptors' studios, including that of Marconi; Antoni Popiel, who made sculptures following his designs or models (in particular, for the Georges Hotel and for the Industrial Museum; after Marconi's death, he made a large model for casting the Tadeusz Kosciuszko monument for Krakow, etc.).

In general, Leonard Marconi made a large number of sculptural works, mainly for architecture in Lviv and other cities. Accordingly, he collaborated with a lot of architects, including Julian Zachariewicz, Erazm Hermatnik, Sylwester Hawryszkiewicz, Jan Schultz, Alfred Kamienobrodzki, Wincenty Rawski and others.

All these architects worked in Lviv in the last decades of the 19^th century. Architecture was dominated by historicism then and focused on the artistic styles of the past. When it came to public buildings, architects in Lviv often preferred classical styles, Renaissance and neolassicism. Marconi's works, as he was educated on the traditions of classical Italian sculpture, stylistically corresponded to the Neorenaissance architecture, which prevailed at the time. Marconi created a huge number of sculpture, mostly allegorical figures. Sculptural ornamentation, exterior and interior décor, was a big part of his work too. Leonard Marconi gained popularity largely due to his comprehensive approach. He was successful at uniting sculptural decoration and architectural design into a whole, which was highly valued in historicism. Therefore, Marconi knew no idle time, was constantly involved into decorating almost all of important public buildings in Lviv at the time.

Apart from architecture, Marconi also had other activities related to his profession. He founded a workshop for alabaster sculpture in the late 1870s. Located in Berezditvtsi village (powiat Bóbrka), it was near to the most famous alabaster deposits in Galicia. The white stone was known as "Ruthenian marble" at the time. According to Ihor Syomochkin, Marconi researcher based in Lviv, "Marconi could hardly cope with financial problems associated with the cost of the alabaster business, as evidenced by the following: failed attempts to increase his salary at the Polytechnic (1878-1880) and, later (1889), failure to pay debts to his creditors. After Leonard Marconi's death in 1899, the business in Berezdivtsi gradually fell into decay."

In addition to these, Marconi created also some religious compositions (mainly in his Italian and Warsaw periods; in Lviv, the altar in the Franciscan nuns' church can be mentioned), as well as memorial, monumental, and portrait sculptures.

In 1892 Marconi was registered in Industrial Exhibition catalogue as a member of the exhibition committee, a member of the jury and a delegate from the Chamber of Commerce (pol. Izba Handlowa) of Lviv, Krakow, and Brody.

At the corner of present-day Antonovycha and Rusovykh streets in Lviv, there is one of the oldest houses in the area, the former villa of Leonard Marconi, built in 1878.

Marconi was buried at the Lychakivsky cemetery in Lviv (field 57).

Some of the sculptor's works are kept in the National Museum in Krakow, the National Museum in Warsaw, the Lviv Art Gallery, and private collections.