Pietro Magni was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 sculptor. Born in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, he studied at that city's Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera

Brera Academy

The Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, also known as Brera Academy is a public academic institution located in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1776 by HIM Maria Theresa of Austria.- Overview :...

 before moving to the workshop

Workshop

A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...

 of Abbondio Sangiorgio

Abbondio Sangiorgio

Abbondio Sangiorgio was an Italian sculptor.Born in Milan, Sangiorgio studied at the city’s Accademia di Brera...

. Later in his career he became influenced by Tuscan sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini

Lorenzo Bartolini

Lorenzo Bartolini was an Italian sculptor who infused his neoclassicism with a strain of sentimental piety and naturalistic detail which led him furthermore in the future, while he drew inspiration from the sculpture of the Florentine Renaissance rather than the overpowering influence of Antonio...

, whose work he first encountered in 1837. He traveled to study in Rome, joining Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

 in 1849. He is best known for his Girl Reading, first carved in 1856; today the original may be seen in Milan's Galleria d'Arte Moderna, while copies exist in numerous other museum collections. Among Magni's other works are a public monument to Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

 and several marble sculpture groups; he also executed statues for the Milan Cathedral in the 1860s.

Magni died in Milan in 1877.