Corrado Feroci: The Italian Sculptor Who Became Father of Thai Modern Art

Corrado Feroci (Florence, 1892 – Bangkok, 1962) won a 1922 competition by the Kingdom of Siam for coin and medal designers, leaving Italy for the East. Trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (diploma 1914), his notable early work includes the Monumento ai Caduti in Portoferraio (1922). In Bangkok, his first commission—a bust of King Rama VI—failed, but Prince Naris, an art historian and the king's uncle, intervened, commissioning a live portrait that succeeded. In 1929, Feroci executed the nearly 5-meter bronze statue of King Rama I, designed by Naris, cast in Italy and placed at the entrance of Bangkok's Memorial Bridge in 1930. This success secured his permanent contract with the Siamese government. He taught Western sculpture at the kingdom's fine arts department. After the 1932 coup ending absolute monarchy, he organized the fine arts school curriculum, publishing 'Modern sculpture and painting in Siam' in the Silpakorn Journal (1938). In 1939, Prime Minister Luang Pibul Songgram commissioned the Democracy Monument on Rajadamnern Avenue. Arrested by Japanese occupiers in 1943, he adopted the name Silpa Bhirasri, was released, and became a Thai citizen in 1944. The school became Silpakorn University, where Bhirasri is revered as the father of Thai modern art. Today, students bow and leave offerings before his statue; on his birthday (September 15), spaghetti appears among floral tributes, honoring his Italian roots.