Tutelary figure of Genoese sculpture, master of marble between academicism and tenderness of gaze, whose work rests in the cemetery he himself sculpted.

Giovanni Scanzi was born in Genoa on 23 February 1840 into a modest family. He entered at the age of twelve the studio of Santo Varni, an influential sculptor and professor at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, where he developed a rigorous technique inherited from neoclassicism.

In 1863, he won the Prix Durazzo, a municipal bursary that allowed him to train in Rome. There he frequented academic circles and became close to sculptor Giulio Monteverde, a major representative of naturalism. This stay was fundamental in his evolution: Scanzi refined his taste for detail, his sense of portraiture and integrated a realist sensibility that would permeate his entire production.

Back in Genoa, he quickly established himself as one of the most respected artists of his generation. In 1879, he was appointed professor at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, where he would teach until 1892. Among his students were Luigi Brizzolara, Eugenio Baroni and Francesco Messina, who would in turn mark the Italian sculptural landscape of the 20th century.

A prolific artist, Scanzi excelled in both public and private commissions, and was particularly recognised for his funerary art: the Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno in Genoa preserves more than fifty monuments that he created. His sculpture is characterised by a constant tension between academic tradition and contemporary expressivity, between technical virtuosity and contained emotion. Giovanni Scanzi died in Genoa on 15 April 1915.