(b Catania, Sicily, 11 Oct 1913). Italian sculptor, draughtsman and printmaker. He was brought up in a working-class district; at the age of 10 he began work in a marble-cutter's workshop. He first discovered sculpture as a youth, in the archaeological museums of Syracuse and Palermo and became interested in Etruscan sculpture and Roman portraiture. He was later influenced by Francesco Laurana's bust of Eleanor of Aragon, by the works of Antonello and Domenico Gagini, Giacomo Serpotta and 15th-century Mannerists. In 1933 he was in Rome, where he made the acquaintance of Renato Guttuso, Leoncillo Leonardi (1915-68) and Marino Mazzacurati (b 1907). In 1948 he exhibited in the Galleria del Secolo, and in 1956 he won the sculpture prize in the Venice Biennale, gaining international recognition.
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