Silvio Peter Zoratti

1896 - 1992

Silvio Peter Zoratti was born in 1896 in the Northeastern Italian province of Udine. At the age of nine he traveled to Austria where he lived with an uncle and earned an apprenticeship certificate as a skilled stonemason. In 1916 he was drafted in the Italian army and spent one year as a German prisoner of war. It was after his release that he chose to emigrate from Italy to the United States, and in 1919, accompanied by an older friend, arrived at Ellis Island. In 1923, he worked for the Bridges and Buildings Department of the Nickel Plate Railroad. He would keep this job until his retirement in 1961. According to his daughter and son-in-law, Zoratti had little time to work on any form of art while employed by the railroad. He had one exception during his working life - in the 1950’s, he made large cement animal sculptures which he placed in the yard behind his house for the amusement of grandchildren. He was, however, constantly culling resource material for his future work by reading through pictorial encyclopedias, children’s stories, and books on science and nature, one can only imagine how much creative energy was stored away over those many years of repairing and building culverts and bridges for the railroad. Mr. Zoratti’s first wood carvings after retirement unleashed his high regard for his country’s historical development. He worked consistently with found materials, various woods and stones. Remarkably, Silvio P. Zoratti took great pride in the signing and dating the majority of his carvings - his name and year of completions were stamped or carved directly in the wood or stone. His daughter Alvera says he went to his basement workshop the morning after his retirement and worked on art all day, every day until failing eyesight forced him to stop his carving in the mid-1980s. – Source: Rachel Davis Fine Arts