José Belloni (September 12, 1882 – November 28, 1965) was a Uruguayan sculptor of the Realist school born in Montevideo, in 1882. His family returned to Europe in 1890 and the Bellonis settled in Lugano, Switzerland. He took an early interest in sculpture, and was mentored by Luis Vasseli, earning a scholarship that briefly took him to Uruguay, in 1899. He later enrolled in the Munich Academy, and participated in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe. Returning to Uruguay, Belloni became an instructor in the Committee for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, and in 1914, he was picked to succeed painter Carlos María Herrera as director of the institution. Belloni created a sculpture in homage to his recently deceased predecessor, and its unveiling later that year in Montevideo's Paseo del Prado created a demand for his works as monuments.<BR> The first of these was Belloni's La carreta (The Carriage), an ode to the ox-cart drivers ubiquitous in the 19th century, casted in Florence, Italy by the Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry and unveiled in a city park (today José Batlle y Ordoñez Park), in 1919. (bron: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Belloni)