Carlo Finelli (1782-1853), was born in Carrara in 1782. He was initiated into sculpture from an early age as the son of sculptors. At the age of 15 he won an award for young artists and moved first to Florence and then to Milan.
In 1807 he settled in Rome together with his brother Piero, who was already one of the artists who gravitated around Canova.
In 1810 he began to decorate one of the halls of the Palazzo del Quirinale to celebrate the arrival, which never happened, of Napoleon in Rome.
Despite his numerous official acknowledgments and his great success, Finelli was always dissatisfied with his work, and in his last period he destroyed all his studies in plaster. He died in his studio in Rome in 1853.
