LUIGI ENZO MATTEI is the author of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, a Vatican work dedicated to the third millennium, and of the Body of the Man in the Holy Shroud, which can be found at the Holy Shroud Museum in Turin and whose replicas are housed elsewhere in three different continents. He is also the author of the bronze bust of Nobel Laureate Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, which is part of the Art Heritage of the Quirinal Palace. These artworks are recognised and included – among others – in the list of the “Patrimoines pour une Culture de la Paix” U.N.E.S.C.O. programme. He is the 77th sculptor of the San Petronio Basilica in Bologna since its foundation in 1390.
He was born in Bologna in 1945; he pursued his artistic studies in the same city, at the School of Art, the State Art School, and the Academy of Fine Arts, and later obtained a teaching assignment in Architecture at the State Art School and at the High School specialising in Art. He is also a Scenography full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. During his multi-faceted activity, he has ranged from visual communication to graphics, from architecture to sculpture. His creations have been awarded the patronage of the highest national institutions, among which: the Senate of the Republic, the Chamber of Deputies, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, and the SMA University Museum System of the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna. His works of art can be admired in more than 80 national museums and galleries worldwide. He has held solo exhibitions in Paris, Barcelona, Basel, Warsaw, Poznan, Milan, Rome, and Bologna (among which the exhibition held at the Church of San Mattia in 2005 by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities). He has received several prizes and awards, among which the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, the “Guglielmo Marconi” International Award for Art and Science in New York in 2003, the Golden Neptune 2004 as Bolognese Artist of the Year, the Santos Dumont Medal of Merit by the Federal Republic of Brazil, and the Pro Patria Medal by the Republic of Poland. He holds positions in the cultural field in his hometown, Bologna, where several of his public works are hosted, among which the Parete Dal Monte chapel, the Porta Fidei, also known as the “Door of the three Popes”, and the Holy Nativity scene in the San Petronio Basilica, not to mention the Monument to Salvo D’Acquisto in Viale XII Giugno. He is the author of several works in the public areas of “the Futa Pass and its surroundings”, and of Ianua Mundi, a gigantic and anthological bronze stele depicting universal themes at the Gima, in Zola Predosa. His Volto Santo (Holy Face), which was given to Pope John Paul II, is exhibited at the Art Collection of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon, for which he works as a Correspondent. He is the author of the Elements of the Presbytery of the Andria Cathedral, a Norman church with details dating back to the era of Frederick II. Several new models of the Body of the Man in the Holy Shroud are already present in Turin, Bologna, Rome, Jerusalem as well as in other locations in Europe and in the Americas. Last but not least, he has worked on the “In Hoc Signo” project for the Anniversary of the Constantine Edict, with the approval of Antonio Paolucci. |
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