Born in a family of sculptors Enrico Butti began working in Milan as an apprentice at the workshop of Giovanni Battista Bosi and Francesco Pelitti. He then attended the Brera Academy under Pietro Magni, Ugo Zannoni and Francesco Barzaghi. In 1893 Butti succeeded Barzaghi to the chair of Sculpture at the Brera, keeping it until 1914. Butti achieved his first significant success with 'l'Angelo dell'evocazione' a funerary statue for the family Cavi-Bussi, since then his work was carried out successfully in the funerary sculpture but also in public monuments, as the 'Monument to Giuseppe Verdi' (1913) which is located in Milan, in front of the Retirement Home for Musicians, founded by Verdi himself. Butti's art moved from the late Romantic experiences of the Scapigliatura Lombarda, to a more realistic approach influenced by Verism but also not indifferent to Symbolist suggestions. |
