Head of John the Baptist

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Head of John the Baptist by Igor Mitoraj, 2006
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs)
Piazza della Repubblica
Rome, May 2019

“Mitoraj was born on 26 March 1944 in Oederan, Germany. His Polish mother was a forced labourer, while his father was a French officer of Polish extraction. He returned with his mother to Poland after the end of World War II. He spent his childhood years in Grojec. He graduated from an art school in Bielsko-Biała and in 1963 he studied painting at the Kraków Academy of Art under Tadeusz Kantor. After graduating, he had several joint exhibitions, and held his first solo exhibition in 1967 at the Krzysztofory Gallery in Poland. In 1968, he moved to Paris to continue his studies at the National School of Art. Shortly afterwards, he became fascinated by Latin American art and culture, spending a year painting and travelling around Mexico. The experience led him to take up sculpture. He returned to Paris in 1974 and two years later he held another major solo exhibition at the Gallery La Hune, including some sculptural work. The success of the show persuaded him that he was first and foremost a sculptor. Having previously worked with terracotta and bronze, a trip to Carrara, Italy, in 1979 turned him to using marble as his primary medium and in 1983 he set up a studio in Pietrasanta. In 2006, he created the new bronze doors and a statue of John the Baptist for the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome.” (Igor Mitoraj, Wikipedia)