Name Gonippo Raggi | Died 1959 | |
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Gonippo Raggi (1875–1959) was an Italian artist who provided murals for many churches and church institutions in the United States.
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Early childhood and education
He was born in Rome, Italy, in 1875, and studied at the Art Institute of St. Michele in Rome.
Artistic practice
He came to the United States in 1904 at the invitation of Papal Marquis Martin Maloney to supervise the decoration of St. Catherine’s Memorial Church in Spring Lake, NJ. Maloney had erected the church as a memorial to his daughter, Catherine. Raggi drew the attention of Rev. Thomas J. Walsh, then Bishop of Trenton. When Walsh became Bishop of Newark, he encouraged Raggi to continue his work in the Newark diocese. Raggi was internationally acclaimed as a portraitist and ecclesiastical artist. and supervised the decoration of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark. He died in 1959.
Several of the buildings containing Raggi's murals have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. All of Raggi's paintings done before 1915 were cataloged by the Smithsonian Institution. Other work by Raggi is cataloged by the Boston Public Library, Department of Fine Arts.