Giovanni Andrei (ca. 1770–1824), sculptor, was a native of Carrara, Italy, who was respected in Rome and Florence as an ornamental sculptor. In 1805 the architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe asked Philip Mazzei to find two Italian sculptors to perform decorative work on the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Mazzei chose Andrei and the latter’s brother-in-law Giuseppe Antonio Franzoni, both of whom arrived early in 1806. When funding for work on the Capitol was inadequate, Andrei worked on several other projects in Washington and Baltimore. In 1811 he and Franzoni presented an ornamental stone medallion to TJ. Andrei traveled to Italy in 1815 to replicate his Corinthian capitals for the United States House of Representatives chamber that had been destroyed in the War of 1812. After his return to the United States he remained in charge of sculptural work at the Capitol until his death in Washington (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; Latrobe, Papers description begins John C. Van Horne and others, eds., The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1984–88, 3 vols. description ends ; Richard R. Borneman, “Franzoni and Andrei: Italian Sculptors in Baltimore, 1808,” WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly, 1892–  description ends , 3d ser., 10 [1953]: 108–11; William C. Allen, History of the United States Capitol: A chronicle of design, construction, and politics [2001]; Latrobe to TJ, 1 Aug. 1811; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 22 Oct. 1824).