Virgil Cantini Charcoal Drawing After Michelangelo

Item Details

Virgil Cantini (Italian/American, 1919 – 2009)
Untitled (after Michelangelo), mid 20th century
Charcoal on illustration board
Signed to lower right

Provenance
Virgil Cantini Estate
Royal York Auctions, circa 2010
Collection of William D. Wade

Virgil Cantini was an enamelist, sculptore, and educator, also known for his work in steel. He received his B.F.A. from Carnegie Tech, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957, and was granted an honorary doctorate in Fine Art from Duquesne University in 1982. For 38 years, Cantini was a long-term faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, where he helped develop the Studio Arts Department. Many of his large-scale works are on display throughout Pittsburgh, such as his signature enamel mural Science and Mankind in the Chevron Science Center and his sculpture Man on University of Pittsburgh’s Parran Hall. Other major pieces include his 1969 Cor-Ten steel sculpture Joy of Life at East Liberty Mall and his enamel mosaic Enlightenment and Joy created as a tribute to Chancellor Edward Litchfield who died in a plane crash in 1956. In 1953, Time magazine named Cantini one of the ‘Hundred Leaders of Tomorrow’, and in 1964, he was awarded the Pope Paul VI Bishop’s Medal for ‘outstanding contribution in the field of liturgical art’.

Condition

- notable toning, foxing and discolorations across sheet; wear to edges and corners.

Dimensions

- measures sheet.

Item #

ITMG381796