[2] Immigrating to the United States in 1903[3] at the age of 24, Lentelli initially assisted in the studios of several established sculptors.

[2] Chosen to provide sculptural ornament for the Panama-Pacific Exposition,[2] Lentelli moved to San Francisco in 1914.

His long-limbed figures with hair and draperies in loose frills like seaweed made striking fountain statues and lent themselves well to architectural decoration.

[1] Lentelli gained fame through his The Savior with Sixteen Angels for the reredos at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, as well as his public sculpture for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.

[8] Among his important works[1] are an equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia (collaboration with Henry Shrady), and a 1932 monument to Cardinal Gibbons[9] located north of Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. A benignity is achieved in the latter, its decorative element accented in the carved chair and graceful folds of the cassock.

[10] His statue of Apollo and a musical muse, located in a lunette of Steinway Hall on 57th Street in New York City, was covered when the building was sold,[10] but is again on display.