Antonio Maraini

Antonio Maraini was an Italian politician, sculptor and art critic. In 1911 he met the writer of English and Polish origin Yoï Pawlowska Crosse, stage name Cornelia Edith Yoï Crosse, with whom he moved to Firenze. Their son Fosco became a well-known ethnologist and orientalist. Although he graduated in law from the University of Rome La Sapienza, Antonio Maraini devoted himself from his early youth to the figurative arts, in particular to sculpturing.

Much appreciated during the Fascist period, Maraini became an influential inspirer of the cultural policy implemented by the regime, being entrusted with important official commissions. Among his most significant works were the bronze panels for the main door of the Basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura after the implementation of the Vatican City in 1929. In 1932 he was appointed National Commissioner of the National Fascist Union of Fine Arts, which he represented as a member of the Chamber of Deputies replaced in 1939 by the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations. From October 1927 to 1942, he was Secretary General of the Venice Biennale. In the eight editions of the Biennale under his direction, Maraini tried to promote the recovery of the various national traditions and to respond to the representation needs of the regime.

After the World War II, Antonio Maraini lived secluded in Firenze, where he had always maintained his residence, dedicating himself to the presidency of the Academy of Art and Design and also to the documentation of his work, now preserved in the archives of the National Modern Art Gallery in Roma.