Constantine Seferlis

Who was Constantine Seferlis?

Constantine L. Seferlis is acknowledged as a master sculptor and stone carver whose works exemplified a group of public monumental artists in the United States during the second half of the 20th century. Many of these stone masters were immigrants, primarily from southern Europe, including Italy and Greece, and they trained and worked in the classical milieu. Seferlis himself was born near Sparta, Greece, and, because of his precocious talent, was enrolled at an early age in the National Academy of Fine Arts in Athens. It was at the National Academy that Seferlis developed his artistic voice, his naturalistic style, and his love for the medium of stone.

Seferlis immigrated to the Washington, D.C., area in the latter part of the 1950s. His talent, grace, and humor were already evident in the sculptures he carved at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, his first job in the United States. Two years later, his art truly began to blossom and mature as he started work on the National Cathedral.

Over the next two decades, he worked on the Cathedral’s various ongoing interior and exterior construction projects.