Biography

Born in Paris, he lived in Florence for the rest of his life. He grew up in Florence and became a sculptor there before becoming a professor at the Accademia delle Belle Arti where colleagues and friends remember him as a “highly regarded professor, an artist and sculptor of refined sensitivity, a distinguished personality.” A true Florentine gentleman, a friendly man who was always smiling and enthusiastic. A talented sculptor and excellent teacher, he knew how to get anyone who listened to him to appreciate art and become passionate about it. Aside from sculpture, Lucacchini also worked on drawings with a preference for pencil techniques and etching, while later he developed a passion for medal making, engraving several bronze medals. He passed away suddenly in Florence in May 2006 at only 68 years of age.

Philosophy

The human figure has always been at the heart of his interests, the centre of his sculpting universe. Maybe more than anything, he loved creating and drawing female figures in particular. In art, as in life, he was dedicated to the study of humankind. His artwork unites masterly technique with a great drawing ability in search of an ideal model where lessons from the past survive alongside a non-conformist spirit and a vividness typical of of modern reinvention. Lucacchini’s artworks express his enthusiasm for life, studies, art and humanity, the same that characterised his time on earth.

Artwork in Castagno

His concrete sculpture titled “Luna Piena” (Full Moon) is a voluminous hemisphere on the wall of a house at the beginning of the main street leading to the heart of the village. A woman’s face is portrayed in a hollow in the middle of the hemisphere, realistic both for her proportions and details. The shape of this female face appears clearly, with lightly closed lips, a small nose and loose hair, a strand of which wisps away, passing close to her right eye before leaving the concave hollow and finding itself on the outer sphere. The alto-rilievo has been created from cement using a cast and colouring the final mixture to imitate bronze.  Looking closely at the surface it can be deduced that a chalk mould was used, since the typical tiny holes caused by air bubbles that form during the setting of the cement are visible. The chalk mould is visible on the wall of Tommaso Paloscia’s house at La Vigna (Castagno), a symbol of the friendship between the artist and the art critic (founder of the Castagno open air museum). It’s said that a woman now living in the “Casa delle Fate” (Fairies’ house) in the village has a very similar, if not identical, face to that of the Luna Piena…