Born in Castel Grande Italy in 1880. Federici came to the United States in 1887. He was apprentice to New York's most reknowned sculptors of the turn of the century. During that time, monuments and statues were frequently erected glorifying the leaders of important communities. Paterson was an important and wealthy city, the first planned industrial city and an industrial capital for silk weaving. The powerful community leaders of the time, wanted to immortalize their predessessors as well as themselves and bronze sculpture has tremendous potential when it comes to longevity. Federici had the skills and talents to command numerous commissions and become Paterson's "master artist."
For more information on Federici read
The Federici Collection Story: Reclaiming an Artist's Voice
Gaetano Federici: The Artist as Historian
co-authored by Flavia Alaya
Exerpts from another article:
By Joseph D. McCaffrey
Star-Ledger Staff
March 14, 1997
In front of St. John's Cathedral in Paterson stands a statue of Irish priest Dean William McNulty, comforting a
barefoot orphan boy. The statue, completed in 1923, has come to symbolize nationally the pastoral role of priests in a
working-class city like Paterson. It is also one of the best-known works of sculptor Gaetano Federici, whose outdoor
sculptures abound in Paterson and other parts of North Jersey.
Federici died in 1964, at the age of 84, leaving a legacy of hundreds of public works.
Shortly after Federici died, his studio collection was sold by his family to an old friend and admirer, Clifton contractor
John Saveriana. The studio collection includes models for some of Federici's more famous statues, including Father
McNulty, and for a World War I memorial in Paterson.
In 1978 Saveriana sold the items to Joseph Randazzo, a collector. Four years ago, Randazzo decided to sell all 215
pieces, and got in touch with an art auctioneer. A group of Paterson residents formed the Federici Collection Inc. in the hope
of acquiring the collection. The Martini Foundation bought it on their behalf.
Federici, Paterson's unofficial "sculptor laureate," was one of New Jersey's few native sculptors, according to one
expert, and an extraordinarily prolific one. The Encyclopedia of American Biography in 1966 called Federici "an
outstanding American sculptor . . . who won international acclaim for his work."
According to Meredith Bzdak, New Jersey coordinator for a project called Save Outdoor Sculpture, Federici's
Collection is well worth saving. His works, she said, "are of great significance to us as a state in understanding our
historical past."
At least 40 of Federici's major statues are within two miles of Paterson's City Hall. Federici's sculptures also are found
in Cuba, New York, Hollywood, and in churches and cemeteries throughout the region. Bzdak said the studio
collection represents the majority of Federici's life work. "I feel the studio collection should remain intact - because it is one
of the only collections of its kind. And because of the significance of Federici to us," she said.
Fiorina said she remembered her grandfather as always at work in his studio. She has family snapshots of him, a short,
sprightly man with a carefully trimmed goatee and a beret. The pictures are of a grandfatherly figure smiling warmly into
the camera while working on huge figures in his studio.
Gaetano Federici was born in Castelgrande, Italy, in 1880. In 1887, he and his mother left their mountainous village to join
his father, Antonio, in Paterson. Antonio Federici was a stone mason who had become a successful contractor in the
booming industrial city.
Federici showed artistic promise as a Paterson High School student. By that time, his father could afford to allow the
boy to get artistic training. As a young man Federici was apprenticed to some of the leading sculptors of his time. He
studied in New York with the Art Students League.
According to Bzdak, Federici was trained in the academic tradition and would never stray far from it. Experts
called him a conservative sculptor: While European sculptors were doing avant-garde work, Federici stayed with
classical themes. He was painstaking in his attention to detail, yet always attempted to capture the personality of
the subject.