He was born to Leopoldo Fedi, a small landowner, and his wife, Camilla née Franchini. Due to economic difficulties, they left Viterbo when he still quite young; living in
Arezzo and Florence. There, he worked for a
goldsmith. This led to lessons in engraving from
Raffaello Sanzio Morghen and
Giovita Garavaglia. From 1838 to 1840, he lived in Vienna with his father and continued his studies at the
Academy of Fine Arts, but he was forced to abandon that potential career due to eye problems caused by the acid fumes. After returning to Florence, from 1842 to 1846 he studied sculpture with
Lorenzo Bartolini at the
Academy of Fine Arts. There, he obtained a scholarship that enabled him to study in Rome at the
Accademia di San Luca. His primary instructor there was
Pietro Tenerani. One his first independent works, a plaster relief of "Christ the Healer", is preserved at San Luca. In 1873, the Accademia named him an "Academician of Merit". His most familiar sculpture is the
Rape of Polyxena (1866), in the
Loggia dei Lanzi. He is also known for two sculptures in the
Loggiato degli Uffizi depicting the illustrious Tuscans,
Nicola Pisano and
Andrea Cesalpino. His other works include
The Fury of Atamante, King of Thebes,
The Genius of Fishing,
Hope Nourishing Love,
Hyppolite and Dianora del Bardi, and
Castalla persecuted by Apollon. In addition, he designed the
Monument to General Manfredo Fanti, molded in bronze by , which stands in the
Piazza San Marco. His memorial to the poet
Giovanni Battista Niccolini is in the church of
Santa Croce. The statue, an allegory of the
Freedom of Poetry, may have inspired
Bartholdi's depiction of the
Statue of Liberty. He also created a statue of
Pietro Torrigiani, the Mayor of Florence. From 1842, he had a studio at 99 , in an old monastery. Currently an actor's training school, it is still known as the . One of his best known students was
Giovanni Bastianini. ==References==