Ferdinando Marinelli Jr, grandson of the founder of the Marinelli Foundry, Ferdinando Marinelli Sr, was born in Florence on December 25, 1949.

When he was a child, his grandfather took him to the Foundry to see pouring the melted bronze into the molds and all the other working phases of the lost wax casting process; everything for him was mysterious and unseen: the fire transformed into bronze masterpiece statues, and the enormous original molds of his grandfather collection.

When gigantic statues crawled out of the foundry on their way to countries far way, he fantasized on the journeys they were about to make. The colossi were going overseas – his grandfather used to tell him – to show Italy’s skills and marvels.

Then Ferdinando Marinelli Jr. started the course of his studies. While he was studying Medicine at the Florentine University in December 1976 his father Marino died and he left University becoming in 1977 the owner and manager of the Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli of Florence, that he still own and direct today after nearly 50 years.