Manzù, Giacomo (1908–1991)

Italian sculptor. Although a left-wing agnostic, he received many religious commissions, including the Door of Death 1964 for St Peter's basilica, Rome, and a portrait bust of Pope John XXIII 1963. His figures, most of which are in bronze, reveal a belief in the innate dignity of the human form.

Manzù was born in Bergamo, Lombardy. He trained as a carpenter and gilder, and was largely self-taught as a sculptor. In Milan in the 1930s he was associated with progressive, antifascist intellectuals, but he was never a modernist. Those he admired most include the French sculptors Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, and Aristide Maillol. 1938 saw the first of a recurring series of cardinals, whose form became increasingly simplified. In his later years he produced painting and occasional theatre designs, notably for Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.