La Storia della Galleria Romanelli

Five generations of Romanelli sculptors have passed through the wooden doors of the Studio: Pasquale Romanelli, his son Raffaello, followed by his son Romano, then Folco and currently brothers Raffaello and Vincenzo Romanelli. The gallery is based in the Oltrarno district in Florence, the artistic and artisinal heart of the city. The first of this building’s function was a church in the early XVI century and transformed became Lorenzo Bartolini’s sculpture studio in 1829. Bartolini tooks advantage of the large arches and high ceilings of the building to work on his greatest monuments. Some of the original tools still remain here: in the middle of the room lies the rotating square wooden pedestal where the largest monuments have been sculpted. Up above are two rams heads facing each other on the north and south walls, used to lift heavy sculptures. There are hundreds of original plaster moulds spread throughout the building which belong to the family collection and can be reproduced in plaster, resin, bronze and marble.