Raffaele Menconi

Raffaele Menconi (1877 — 1942) was an Italian-American sculptor.

Menconi 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 Reader's Digest building in Chappaqua New York, and in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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 Menconi in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, for many years. Menconi once owned a cliffside home in Union City, New Jersey.^[4]

Notes

^ He became a naturalized American citizen in 1924 (westchester County Naturalization Records Archived 2008-10-25 at the Wayback Machine).
^ 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").
^ Missouri Capitol: Flagpole, (sculpture).
^ Lissner, Caren (2023-06-30). "From Up Here, You Can See Manhattan, and Houses Left to Crumble". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-18.

[1] He became a naturalized American citizen in 1924 (westchester County Naturalization Records Archived 2008-10-25 at the Wayback Machine).

[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).

[4] Lissner, Caren (2023-06-30). "From Up Here, You Can See Manhattan, and Houses Left to Crumble". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-18.

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