Virgil Lo Schiavo b. c.1909

  • Artist (Painter)
Painter, born Italy. Won Sulman Prize 1945. Had a work commissioned by Archbishop Duhig during WWII.
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Painter, born Italy. Graduated in Arts from Sydney University. Taught at the Dattilo-Rubbo Art School in Sydney and at East Sydney Technical College. Won Sulman Prize 1945. The mural he painted for St Stephen’s Catholic Cathedral, Brisbane, behind the altar and on north-south walls of the crossing, commissioned by Archbishop Duhig during WWII, is now painted out. Duhig also commissioned a canvas of 'The Martyrdom of St Stephen’, measuring 25 feet by 12 feet six inches – 'the biggest of its kind ever undertaken in Australia’, according to the archibishop, who also said: 'The drapery and setting are really perfect and the figures seem to throb with life. I regard Mr Lo Schiavo as the most gifted artist in Australia, and I regret that his work is not much more before the public’ (Duhig letter, 17 June 1943 (Art File, Brisbane Archdiocescan Archives), cited Grice.

Lo Schiavo also painted an enormous mural for the Union Building, University of Sydney.

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Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1999
Last updated:
2011

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References [<ExternalResource: Grice, Peter (Fr) (1997), 'Archbishop James Duhig a patron of the visual arts', Queensland Studies Centre Griffith University, Brisbane, Qld : in Art Off Centre: placing Queensland art, [Cooke, Glenn (ed.)], pp 90-98.>, <ExternalResource: McCulloch, Alan (1984), 'Encyclopedia of Australian Art', Melbourne, Vic : Hutchinson of Australia (2nd edn).>]