Salvatore Albano, “The Fallen Angels or The Rebel Angels”, Marble, Dark Stone, Bronze, 1893, Height of Marble Group, 154.9 x 147.3 cm, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Born in the southern commune of Oppido Mamertina in May of 1841, Salvatore Albano was Italian sculptor. He was known for his elegant conceptualization of form and his expertise in its execution.
Albano’s career began at an early age in the Calabria region, where he carved wooden Nativity scenes. Impressed with his talent, he was given a stipend by the regional government in 1860 to study in Naples. Albano initially studied at sculptor Sorbille’s studio in Naples, and then at Naples’s Academy of Fine Art under its director, the sculptor Tito Angelini.
As a young man, Albano earned considerable success in 1864 with his marble group, entitled “Conte Ugolino”, which was purchased by the marquis Agostino Sergio. In 1865, the region of Calabria extended his annual stipend of sixty lire for another three years. That same year, Albano won first prize at the Academy of Fine Art in Naples for his “Christ nell’Orto (Christ on the Mount of Olives)”.
Salvatore Albano submitted two works, “The Resurrection of Lazarus” and “Cain”, to a exposition in Rome in 1867. He had completed by 1869 two more works, a figure of Eve and a bust of the Italian composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini. Albano also relocated to Florence in that year, where he would spend the remainder of his career. While in Florence, he completed several more works in marble, including the “Venere Mendicante”, and two plaster-cast statues, “Mephistopheles” and “Marguerite”, which were exhibited in Paris at the Salon of 1881.
Albano’s last work was the figurative composition “Fallen Angels”, set on a marble, dark stone, and bronze base. The marble figures of the angels was finished in 1893; the dark stone carved base, which measures 40 x 57 inches, was finished in 1883. Salvador Albano died in Florence in October of 1893 at the age of fifty-two.
Note: In the National de Arta al României (Simu Museum) in Bucharest, there is a statue entitled “Slave” which is attributed to Salvador Albano.