Giancarlo Beneo

Born in Carrara, Italy, in 1943, Giancarlo Beneo has always had marble in his life. His grandfather, Andrea, was a sculptor and honorary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, whereas his father, Enzo, was an internationally renowned mining engineer and director of the Geological Service of Italy from 1950 to 1966.

Beneo moved to Rome in his early childhood; he studied at the University of La Sapienza, graduating in geology in 1968, and later obtaining a specialisation in Petrography. In his life he travelled from the north of Scotland to Equatorial Africa, carrying out mining, hydrological and engineering studies and research for prestigious national and international institutes, going from the Sahara desert to the depths of the sea. Despite all his travels, he has never forgotten his hometown, Carrara.

In 1999, his study, titled “Carrara’s artists in Rome. The works of the sculptors, from the seventeenth century to the present day”, dedicated to the marble works made by Carrara’s artists and scattered throughout the capital of Italy, was successfully presented in his native city. This study,  carried out over more than ten years with a patient photographic and historiographic work by Beneo himself, was afterwards collected in an illustrated volume, which is now in its second edition.

In the second half of the 2000’s, thanks to his friendship with artist Enrico Fiorentini, he joined the Università dei Marmorari, offering his enormous petrographic skills.