Leo Lentelli and his San Francisco Work

Hunter Dunlin Building
111 Sutter Street
Financial District

The Hunter Dunlin Building is one of San Francisco’s gems.  Restored in the late 1990’s to its former glory, it has ornamentation throughout its lobby and everywhere you look on the exterior.

There are six plaques on the Northern and Eastern facades called The Seasons.  They are by Leo Lentelli.  They are allegorical representations of the seasons, and while there are six plaques there are only two different sculptures.

Leo Lentelli is best known in San Francisco for designing the tops of the street lights on Market known as the Path of Gold.

Lentelli was an Italian sculptor who immigrated to the United States. During his 52 years in the United States he created works throughout the country, notably in New York and San Francisco. He also taught sculpture.

 

Born in Bologna, Italy, Leo Lentelli studied in Bologna and Rome and worked as a sculptor in Italy. He immigrated to the United States in 1903 at the age of 24. In 1911 he entered the Architectural League exhibition and won the Avery Prize. The following year he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.Chosen to provide sculptural ornament for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Lentelli moved to San Francisco in 1914. He collaborated with Frederick George Richard Roth and Stirling Calder (Alexander Calder’s Father). Calder has been credited with aiding Lentelli in developing his own style  An example can be seen in his Water Sprites.

He also participated as a sculptor in the city’s artistic renewal, which took place after the 1906 earthquake and fire.  While in San Francisco he taught at the California School of Fine Arts. Significant works from this period include the Five Symbolic Figures at the Old Main Library elevated above the street entrance of the Larkin Street entrance.(no longer available)  Still a resident of San Francisco, he made the ornament for the Orpheum Theater, then known as the Historic American Theater. (no longer available)

Eventually Lentelli moved back to New York City and began teaching at the Art Students League. Lentelli’s bas-reliefs on the International Building at Rockefeller Center are considered among his most important works.

Lentelli retired to Italy and died on December 31, 1961 in Rome.

At the entrance to the Hunter Dunlin Building is this sculpture by Leo Lentelli titled Mercury.

The San Francisco Public Library Blog has some wonderful photographs of Lentelli’s work in San Francisco that is no longer around.