Ernesto Bazzaro studied at the Brera Academy in Milan.
He took part in the Scapigliatura movement (a bohemian movement, bringing together poets, journalists and painters) which wished to modernise Italian culture through foreign influences (German and French romanticism, etc.)

He quickly made a name for himself in genre sculpture and cemetery monuments. His works were acclaimed in Italy and abroad and won numerous medals.

Bazzaro writes the following about his work: "What I seek," he says, "is to render as effectively as possible the impressions I receive from nature (...) it is in it that I feel and see all the power and greatness of life. (...) when I observe, it is not the thing that I want to represent: but the life (...) and to obtain the intensity of this life.