Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry

The Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry (Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli, abbreviated as FAFM) is an Italian bronze casting workshop that produces original sculptures and recreations using the Renaissance-era technique of lost-wax casting. It was established in Florence in 1905.^[1]

Works associated with the foundry include the 1998 La Fontana del Porcellino in Florence’s Loggia del Mercato Nuovo,^[2] the Arlington Memorial Bridge approach statue Sacrifice^[3] and a sculpture of the United Nations' Celestial Sphere Woodrow Wilson Memorial.^[4]

Ferdinando Marinelli moved to Florence as a teenager and apprenticed under artisans such as Cusmano Vignali and Gabellini. He learned both stirrup manufacturing and the lost-wax casting technique.^[5] In 1905, he established a small workshop on Via de’ Giudei (now Via Ramaglianti) in Florence.

In 1915, Marinelli joined Alessandro Biagiotti's foundry.^[6] After World War I, he purchased the late Gabellini's foundry on Via del Romito (now Via Filippo Corridoni). During this era, the foundry created monuments in Piazza Dalmatia, Florence, Poggio a Caiano, Barberino Val d'Elsa, and Cerbaia, commemorating World War I and collaborated with artists like Mario Moschi and Odo Franceschi.^[7]

In 1925, the foundry erected a monument dedicated to the painter Giovanni Fattori. In 1927, the Florence Chamber of Commerce listed the foundry among local artistic industries. Independent sources describe its use of traditional bronze casting methods.^[8]

• Conservation and restoration of cultural property
• Pietro Bazzanti e Figlio Art Gallery

43°29′03.6″N 11°08′06.0″E / 43.484333°N 11.135000°E / 43.484333; 11.135000