Marco Santi

Italian artist, businessman and art restorer (born 1963)

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Marco Santi

Marco Santi in 2021

Born| 1963 (age 61-62)

Ravenna, Italy

Nationality| Italy
Education| Accademy of Fine Arts in Ravenna
Website| https://gruppomosaicisti.it

Marco Santi (born 1963[1]) is an Italian artist, art restorer, businessman and mosaicist, director of the Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna since 2008.[2]

## Life

[edit]

Santi was born in Ravenna. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna and currently lives and works in Ravenna.[3]

## Career

[edit]

Marco Santi in 2017 - Carbo Spiritualis

He began his artistic career in 1979, working as a mosaicist and restorer at the Cooperativa Mosaicisti, a workshop of Ravenna mosaics of which he became president from 1989 to 2006.[4] In 2008, he liquidated the Cooperativa Mosaicisti,[5] reconstituting the "Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna," a company founded in 1948 with the aim of restoring Ravenna's cultural heritage damaged during World War II and creating contemporary mosaic works.[6][7][8]

Since 2008, Santi and his group have conducted numerous works in Italy and abroad, including in the United States of America (including St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York) and several European and Middle Eastern countries.[9][10][11]

He contributed to the birth of MUMO, the Open-Air Mosaic Museum of Tornareccio, in collaboration with Alfredo Paglione.[12]

The artist's largest work, however, is in Beirut. In fact, for over ten years, the artist has been working with his company on the St. Anthony Greek Melkite Church, where the mosaic becomes three-dimensional and the subjects of the work emerge from the walls.[13]

Marco Santi is the inventor of mosaics for the blind, thus giving the opportunity to perceive the three-dimensionality of the mosaic to all those people who have visual impairments.[14]

With Santi's Mosaicists Group he has carried out numerous restoration interventions in Ravenna (including the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe) and in several Italian cities, also teaching the art of restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna, the University of Bologna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata.[15][16]

From a stylistic point of view, Marco Santi in his personal works does not place importance on the subjects, but shifts the attention to the materials he uses, making them become the subject itself with different meanings, often using coal or burnt wood wrapped in mosaic backgrounds.[17]

## Works

[edit]

* 2001 — Apse - St. Lucia's church (Reggio Calabria)[18]
* 2006 — Fountains - Milano Marittima
* 2006 — MUMO (Open-air Mosaic Museum) - Tornareccio
* 2011 — Giovanni Paolo II \- Sanctuary of Divine Love (Rome)[19]
* 2011 — Siren \- Roundabout Punta Marina Terme (Ravenna)[20]
* 2015 — Honey pouring - homage to Tornareccio[21]
* 2017 — Carbo Spiritualis
* 2017 — Mosaic Sculpture – The color of Sculpture (National Museum of Ravenna)[22]
* 2017 — St. Charbel Makhluf \- St. Patrick's Cathedral (New York)
* 2018 — Restitutions – Restored Art Treasures (Palace of Venaria)[23]
* 2018 — sweet abandonment
* 2023 — Episodes of contemporary mosaic – Palazzo Rasponi Delle Teste Ravenna
* 2024 — Starry Flower - Rotonda Andorra Ravenna[24][25]
* Mosaics - St. Anthony Greek Melkite Church (Lebanon)
* Pope Francis - Church of Purgatory in Ortona
* Mosaic restoration - Patriarchal Basilica (Aquileia)
* Domus mosaics (2nd century AD) - Turin Museum of Antiquities
* Sectile mosaic in the Minutolo Chapel - Naples Cathedral
* Grifo, opus sectile mosaic - Bitonto Cathedral (Bari)
* Contemporary mosaics – Art Museum of the City of Ravenna[26]

## See also

[edit]

* Mosaic
* Ravenna

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Santi, Marco - Enciclopedia". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-04-23.
2. ^ "Un fine e non un mezzo. I 100 anni della Scuola di Mosaico di Ravenna". www.finestresullarte.info (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-14.
3. ^ "Santi, il giro del mondo con l'arte: "Dalla Cooperativa Mosaicisti alle lezioni, fino in Medio Oriente"". Il Resto del Carlino (in Italian). 2024-12-15. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
4. ^ "Marco Santi e i mosaici a Ravenna". annamariasantoro.yolasite.com. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
5. ^ "Project Manager". Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-01-20.
6. ^ "Patrimonio culturale dell'Emilia-Romagna". bbcc.regione.emilia-romagna.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-01-20.
7. ^ "Gruppo Mosaicisti di Ravenna di Marco Santi". Ravenna Città del Mosaico (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-01-20.
8. ^ "Le copie dei mosaici antichi di Ravenna". Ravenna Città del Mosaico (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-03-18.
9. ^ "St. Charbel Shrine at St. Patrick's Cathedral | Studio Kraeher Architects". Retrieved 2025-01-20.
10. ^ "Ravenna, Marco Santi, artista a tutto tondo: «I nostri mosaici anche a Beirut»". Settesere.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-01-20.
11. ^ "An end and not a means. The 100 years of the Ravenna Mosaic School". www.finestresullarte.info. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
12. ^ "Un Mosaico per Tornareccio - Un sogno diventato realtà". unmosaicopertornareccio.it. Archived from the original on 2024-08-17. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
13. ^ admin (2022-10-31). "Marco Santi e il Gruppo Mosaicisti". IN Magazine Romagna (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-01-20.
14. ^ "Un pannello per non vedenti". Il Resto del Carlino (in Italian). 2023-07-12. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
15. ^ "A Classe analisi all'avanguardia dei mosaici". Il Resto del Carlino (in Italian). 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
16. ^ "Restauri". Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-01-20.
17. ^ "Marco Santi". Ravenna Città del Mosaico (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-03-26.
18. ^ "Lavori_abside reggio calabria- Giampaolo Silvestri & Cristina Bucchi Architetti1". digilander.libero.it. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
19. ^ "Giovanni Paolo II, un mosaico per lui al Santuario del Divino Amore". RomaToday (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-06.
20. ^ Amministratore (2011-03-26). "Una sirena per Punta Marina". Ravenna24ore.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-06.
21. ^ Redazione (2015-07-24). ""Un Mosaico per Tornareccio" compie dieci anni". Abruzzo News (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-03-18.
22. ^ "Scultura e mosaico: tre mostre al Museo Nazionale di Ravenna". RavennaToday (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-06.
23. ^ "Mosaico con raffigurazione di Nereide". Restituzioni (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-06.
24. ^ "Nuovo look per la rotonda Andorra. Inaugurata un'opera in mosaico". Il Resto del Carlino (in Italian). 2024-03-27. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
25. ^ "Opera musiva a Fornace Zarattini sulla rotonda Andorra". Comune di Ravenna (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-06.
26. ^ "Ravenne accueille la Biennale de la mosaïque contemporaine : un regard sur le présent d'une technique à l'histoire séculaire". www.finestresullarte.info (in French). Retrieved 2025-03-18.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Marco Santi at Wikimedia Commons
* Official website
* Santi, Marco,  on Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia