Sculptor Giuseppe Angelini was born in 1742 in Rome. He studied under Bartolomeo Cavaceppi for whom he carried out a considerable amount of restoration work in the 1760s. He attended the Academy of St Luke before moving to London around 1770. He worked from a studio at no. 1 Union Street, Southwark, until 1776 when the premises were taken over by fellow Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Locatelli. He was employed by Joseph Nollekens whom he had met in Rome. He was in financial difficulties by 1777 when he applied for assistance to the Royal Academy and was granted a ‘charitable donation’ of twenty-five guineas. He returned to Rome soon after where he died in 1811.
Sculpture