Ferdinando Codognotto was born in San Dona di Piave, near Venice, in 1940. He studied painting, sculpture, graphic art and antique restoration at the Carmini School of Art in Venice, and worked there and then in Rome. Codognotto has exhibited in Turin (in the international exhibition, "Man and Nature", Rome (the Quadrennial and at the Palazzo Braschi), Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo (Bienal), and Tokyo. He has realized major public works in Rome and New York.

 

In 1986 Codognotto created Big Comet on the occasion of a symposium held at the University of Rome on the return of Haley's Comet. This work was subsequently presented to Pope John Paul II "in the name of all the astronauts of the world." Codognotto has done a number of ecclesiastical projects, most recently for the Jesus and Mary church in Rome's via del Corso.