L. Franklin Gilliam (born 1944 in Virginia, died 1997) taught history of art, sculpture and printmaking at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1974, during a year-long stay in India, he wrote a dissertation on the art of early Indian Buddhism. He subsequently worked for several years as professor at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. A turning point in Gilliam’s career came when he was invited to Italy by the city of Lucca to teach American students of sculpture during the summer holidays. From 1972 onwards he spent the months between semesters in the studios and quarries of Pietrasanta-Carrara. Ultimately his work there made him decide to break off his career with the university in order to live as a sculptor in Tuscany.

Much of his inspiration came from Italian sources, and no place could have been better suited to the development of his projects than the area around Pietrasanta-Carrara, made famous through the work of Michelangelo and from whose quarries marble has been cut since antiquity.