Mario Rutelli

Who was Mario Rutelli?

Mario Rutelli was a famous Italian sculptor. He was the son of Arch. d. Giovanni Rutelli and of d. Vita Romano. Rutelli's father was a well-known Italian architect and highly competitive building contractor-entrepreneur of the era. Among the many projects which he had officially completed was the technical oversite of the entire construction of the monumental Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo, the 3rd largest lyric theatre in all of Europe. The Teatro Massimo was completed by Giovanni Rutelli's building firm Rutelli and Machì.

Having studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo and then in Rome under Giulio Monteverde, Mario Rutelli's masterwork is the "Fontana delle Naiadi" in Piazza della Repubblica, Rome, which Benito Mussolini called the "exaltation of eternal youth, the capital's first salute to art".

His other works are located in Italy and abroad and they include:

The monument to Anita Garibaldi on the Janiculum.

One of the Victories on the Vittoriano in Rome.

The bronze Quadriga on the teatro Politeama at Palermo, with Apollo and Euterpe above it..