Il grande lottatore (The Large wrestler)

Born in Catania, in Sicily, Emilio Greco was apprenticed to a stonemason at 13 years of age, assisting in copying antique sculptures, before acquiring a more formal training at the Academy of Art in Palermo. Greco was employed as Professor of Sculpture at the School of Fine Arts in Rome; as well as in Monaco and Salzburg. In 1956 he received the Grand Prize in Sculpture at the Venice Biennale.

The large wrestler represented here is a street performer, a timeless character that dates back to the Etruscan and Roman periods of the 5th century BC, but executed in the modern style of the post-war Italian Realist movement. This life-sized work was the first large sculpture to be made by Greco. (20th Century Modern, 2003)

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