Sculptor and designer

Alfredo was born in Valletta, the son of Carmelo and Maria née Mifsud. He was one of nine siblings and was born into a family of silversmiths. His family moved from Valletta to Msida at the beginning of the twentieth century and took with them the business of upholstery.

Alfredo (better known as 'Fredu') Azzopardi studied at the Government Industrial Arts Centre under Giuseppe Calì* and Vincenzo Cardona, an Italian sculptor. He was offered scholarships to Italy on several occasions, but he never made the trip as he had a chronic fear of travelling across water. He devoted all his entire life to sculpture and design although he did not always eke out a living for his big family.

Azzopardi already had three local diplomas at the age of 25. He worked in mixed media, using stone, wood, papier mâché, plywood, and, in a later phase of his life, cement compounds. He was mainly a religious artist.

Azzopardi’s very modest nature compelled his family to live from hand to mouth. On innumerable occasions, he refused money for his work, especially for items of a religious character, saying that art should repay itself for future generations. For a time he had to put aside his artistic profession as a sculptor to work as a carpenter at the docks, a job he abandoned after a close friend died in a fatal accident at the workplace.

Azzopardi himself survived a serious accidence in 1931 when he fell from a height of 15 metres while decorating the Orpheum Opera House at Gżira, where he was working on sixteen portrait-sculptures of plaster of famous Maltese composers.

Azzopardi enjoyed a fine reputation as an interior decorator. His wood sculptures adorn the Cafè (Bonaci) Premiere in Valletta and Marquis Scicluna’s palatial residences in Naxxar and Villa Dragonara in St Julians. He also specialised in sculpture furniture and inlaid wood design. Indeed, he also carried out work in stone for churches such as Żabbar, Kalkara, and Tal-Ħerba in Birkirkara. He performed sculpture in stone for the building of Joe Gasan at Balluta.

Alfredo Azzopardi was elected first-class associate of the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in 1916. Two years later, he was awarded a special certificate of merit for an outstanding wood bas-relief of Lord Horatio H. Kitchener, Britain’s Secretary of War during World War One.

Azzopardi’s religious works are to be found in many churches, including Tal-Ħerba, Birkirkara, Msida, the Capuchin church, Floriana, Naxxar, Żabbar, Ħaż-Żebbuġ, Kalkara, and Cospicua. He also made the well-known figure of Fra Diego at the Institute in Ħamrun and a bas-rielf of Federico Brockdorff. Needless to say, his major output was for the parish church of Msida.

He made the plaster moulding of the painting of St Joseph (later on replaced) and the other painting in 1931; the sculpture of the original main altar canopy and the crown of the mantle for the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary; the design and work of the dais or predella for the statue of St Francis in 1932 as well as work for the external festivities such as the pedestals for the statues of the Flight to Egypt.

Alfredo Azzopardi was commissioned to produce wooden religious sculptures to hang on the humid walls of diverse rock-hewn shelters at the outbreak of World War Two. He regarded such a task as one which was essentially ‘moral’ and overworked himself cutting figures for no remuneration.

Azzopardi was also an accomplished portrait sculptor but his obstinately self-imposed low profile confined him to a back place in the shadow of well-known artists. However, his reputation was such that he caught the attention of foreigners who commissioned sculptures of international politicians. In point of fact, he made another bas-relief of Sir Winston Churchill which was placed in a London Museum and other busts of King George V and a wood scultpure showing the meeting between the British Statesman and Theodore Roosevelt. He also sculptured the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Alfredo Azzopardi married Maria Calleja on 7 January 1911, the daughter of Salvatore Calleja and Adele née Pugliesevich, who bore him nine children. He died a poor man at Msida.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.