Cesare Sighinolfi

His father, who built musical organs, wanted him to follow in the profession, but the boy inclined towards art, and he received early mentorship from the sculptor Luigi Mainoni, professor of the Academy of Modena.

At the Modenese Academy, he won all the contests, and garnered a stipend to study in Florence, and where he was helped by the sculptor Giovanni Duprè and Pietro Cantini.

Sighinolfi won the first prize in a contest sponsored by Baron Ricasoli for the design of equestrian statues of Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel.

[2] Cesare Sighinolfi travelled to Bogotà, Colombia in 1880, invited by his mentor Pietro Cantini to help decorate the Teatro Cristobal Colon.

In Bogota, Cesare Sighinolfi succeeded Alberto Urdaneta, as director of the School of Fine Arts of Bogotà: teaching alongside Luigi Ramelli and Pietro Cantini.