Raffaele Menconi

One of the pair of bronze flagpole bases, sculpted by Menconi to a sketch by Thomas Hastings (1912) and cast at Tiffany Studios, stand before the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue, New York

Raffaele Menconi (1877 — 1942) was an Italian sculptor who established a practice in New York City[1] with his brother Giuseppe (Joseph). Menconi realised the bronze architectural sculptures and fittings for a generation of Beaux-Arts architects, such as Carrère and Hastings; Menconi's bronze flagpole bases for the Fifth Avenue front of the New York Public Library (1912, illustrated) are particularly prominent.[2] Another pair of bronze flagpole bases by Menconi, showing an American eagle and representations of the four seasons, to designs of Egerton Swartwout, stand before the Missouri State Capitol.[3] His work also appears on the Readers' Digest building in Chappaqua New York, and in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Boston.

He married Josephine Zampieri; their son, Ralph J. Menconi (1915–1972), who apprenticed in his father's New York studio, was also a well-known sculptor and medalist. The Menconi Family lived in an Italianate house designed by Mr. Menconi in Hastings-on-Hudson NY for many years.

Notes

  1. ↑ He became a naturalized American citizen in 1924 (westchester County Naturalization Records).
  2. ↑ Noted by Henry Hope Reed. The Golden City (New York: Norton Library) 1971, illustrated p. 38; Reed's photograph in the collection of NYPL is inscribed "Written on the verso of one of the four photographs of the flagpole base: Ornament, Raphael and Joseph Menconi, modellers; figures, Sc. Grandelli; S.M. Rasario and Bros.; Menconi Bros." (NYPL Digital Gallery: click "Image details").
  3. ↑ Missouri Capitol: Flagpole, (sculpture).
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