Porcelli Family

Pietro Giacomo Porcelli was born 30 January 1872 at Bisceglie, near Molfetta in Apulia. He was the son of Leonardo Porcelli, a Pugliese mariner from Molfetta engaged in shipping on the Adriatic, and his wife Anna Caputi. At age 8 he went with his father to Sydney, leaving his mother and younger sister at home. Pietro began drawing and sculpting, under Achille Simonetti’s guidance. Encouraged by his father and instructors, Pietro then trained at the Royal Academy of Naples in Italy where he won medals in exhibitions and obtained his diploma.

In August 1898, Pietro and his father migrated to Western Australia onboard the Cape Otway. By December 1898 Porcelli had already completed a life-size bust in plaster-of-Paris of Sir John Forrest, the first such representation of a leading citizen by a local artist; a bronze cast of the colony’s premier stands in Parliament House's main entrance hall to this day.

He married Martha Massie Goodwin in 1910. Between 1900 and 1925 the gifted sculptor created busts, reliefs, patriotic plaques and large medallions of prominent citizens, many designed from faded or torn photographs. His creations include works in Moora, Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Victoria Park, West Leederville and numerous headstones in Karrakatta and Fremantle cemeteries. All his major figures were cast in Italy. In 1911, Porcelli unveiled his, ‘crowning achievement’, a larger-than-life figure of O’Connor overlooking Fremantle Harbour.

His Father Leonardo was born in Italy in 1835. In the 1870’s he migrated to Australia. He was first employed on the construction of the Gabo Island lighthouse off the coast of New South Wales; going later to New Zealand, he again engaged in fishing and was among the first to explore the coasts of those islands for fishing purposes. When he returned to N.S.W. in 1880 with his Son he continued as a fisherman, and invented a trawl net suitable for those waters. In the 1890’s the Eastern States were then suffering an economic depression, with failed banks, declining business and much human frustration and misery, so they joined the multitudes (including ‘t'othersiders' fishing families) lured by the glow of Golden West, travelling by the Cape Otway to arrive in Fremantle on 18th August 1898. They took up residence at 8 Henry Street in the town that was later to remember him as ‘the well-known Fremantle sculptor’.

The father set up in business as an importer of Italian goods, trading in lines for which his country is noted: advertisements in the local newspapers told of fine, imported macaroni available at his store in Pakenham Street. In a short space of time, Leonardo Porcelli became the friend and counsellor of his fellow-countrymen, especially the Molfettese fishermen.

By the early 1900’s however, Leonardo was ageing and Pietro took charge of the small shop. Advertisements of fine Italian culinary delights appeared in the name of Pietro Porcelli. Leonardo died suddenly on 13th October 1905, after having been taken ill at a friend’s house and, though taken to hospital, did not recover. A Fremantle newspaper paid its tribute to Leonardo Porcelli, as ‘the father of the well-known sculptor’. The Italian residents of Fremantle, Perth and districts lost their oldest friend and one whom they were would speak of as ‘Padre and Padrone’. That the Italian ‘father’ was held in high esteem was evident by the many fellow-countrymen at his funeral at Fremantle Cemetery the following day. To Pietro it was a tragic loss. On his father’s grave he erected a simple marble cross inscribed with his personal tribute: ‘He was a Man and a Worker for Humanity in all things.’

His Son continued his legacy, helping out the fellow fishermen. On one occasion in 1912, he was asked to head a deputation of the ‘fish fellows’ of Fremantle to the Government Minister for Fisheries, and to act as their spokesman in regard to various piscatorial grievances, this indicating the high esteem in which he was held by the townspeople of the Port, including many of his fellow countrymen.

As unobtrusive as his arrival, so was his departure. A brief word in the daily newspaper formally announced his death on 28th June 1943. The phrase in his death notice: ‘Everlasting memories of our beloved father' suggests much more sunshine than tears.

His works live on after him.

In the 1980s, Giuseppe Rispoli, a friend of Porcelli and Founder of the Porcelli Memorial Fund, proposed that a statue of the sculptor be commissioned by the Italian community in honour of his memory and his creative artistry. Fittingly, in 1993, Greg James, another well-known local artist completed this work, and it can be seen in Walyup Koort today.