1906-1992

Theodore Cotillo Barbarossa was born to Italian parents in Ludlow, Vermont. They relocated to Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1910s, where Barbarossa attended the Massachusetts College of Art and Yale University, receiving an honorable mention at the 1934 Prix de Rome. He then moved to New York, working primarily with bronze, wood and stone, gaining notoriety for his animal and figure sculptures. Much like his contemporaries, Barbarossa was part of President Roosevelt's WPA New Deal art initiative, for which he created relief sculptures depicting national ideals such as industry, education, and agriculture for post offices and other federal buildings. One of his best-known works are the five statues on the façade of the Boston Museum of Science. He was a fellow of the National Sculpture Society, a member of the National Academy of Design, the Allied Artists of America, the Audubon Artists, the International Institute of Arts and Letters, and the New England Sculptors Association. Photo: “Woman with Doves" attributed to Theodore Barbarossa.