Antonio Isopi

Antonio Aloysius Petrus Isopi first lived and worked in his home city as a sculptor and soon specialized on restoring antique pieces of art.

Franzoni – coming from an established family of stone sculptors and marble quarry owners in Carrara – was becoming the leading restorer of antique statues in the Vatican.

[1] Isopi found recognition of his talent for detailed stone sculpting of gorgeous vases and burial memorials in classicist style, as well as true-to-detail depiction of animals.

However, King Wilhelm I had to close the institute in 1817 because of financial shortage due to the hunger years 1816/17 caused by the eruption of volcano Tambora in Indonesia.

When, in 1806, Württemberg became a kingdom King Friedrich I commissioned his royal sculptor Isopi, who had been raised to knighthood, to create monumental sculptures of the two heraldic animals, stag and lion.

In a technically complicated procedure, after five years of experimenting and producing, Isopi, assisted by his pupil Ernst Mayer, succeeded in creating two huge sculptures, which were to be placed in front of the royal castle.

From 1818 to 1820 Isopi, accompanied by his pupil Ernst Mayer, restored antique statues for the Glyptothek in Munich which was built by Leo von Klenze for King Ludwig I.