Early Life and Artistic Beginnings Giacomo Manzù (born December 22, 1908, Bergamo, Italy—died January 17, 1991, Ardea) was an Italian sculptor who, in the mid-20th century, revived the ancient tradition of creating sculptural bronze doors for ecclesiastical buildings. His sober realism and extremely delicate modeling alternately achieved austere severity and sensuousness of form and surface, lending a new spirit of vitality to figurative bronze sculpture. He had to leave school at an early age to learn a trade, and he was apprenticed to local craftsmen who taught him to carve wood and to wor…