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Mr. Peter Vieri Bianchi (1920-2004)
He was a 1938 graduate of Kenosha High School. He graduated from Mizen Academy of Art, Chicago, Ill., after attending 1939-1941; Chicago Academy of Art in 1945; and American Academy of Art, Chicago, 1946-1949.
He was an apprentice artist for Haddon Sunblom, Johnson and White Art Studio, Chicago, 1949-1951. He was a fine artist, taking commissions independently, in Kenosha, 1951-1959; a staff artist, one of two, for National Geographic Society, National Geographic Magazine, Washington, 1959-1973; and a fine artist, taking commissions independently, 1974-present.
His religious paintings, many of them displayed in churches and monasteries, include "Archangel Raphael" and "The Dead Sea Scrolls." They range in size from huge murals in church basilicas to the small "The Madonna of the Airways," which hangs in the U.S. Air Force Academy chapel.
His most recent work, which is known world wide, is the drawing "Our Lady of Emmitsburg."
He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in North Africa, Corsica and Italy 1941-1945.
A combination of research with art, his National Geographic Society collection was painted in coordination with noted archeologists and other specialists in locations extending to the remote corners of the world.
His National Geographic work included a series of seven paintings of the cliff-dweller Indians, published in February 1964. His "Early Man Series" depicted the lives of early men who lived in the Olduvai Gorge, East Africa.
He did three paintings of the Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii, as spewed its ashes over the populous of ancient Pompeii.
In 1960, he painted the life of early Viking settlers, including a canvas depicting a famous battle between the settlers and the Indians, titled "Warclubs and Stone-Tipped Arrows/Wooden Shields and Iron Swords."