Ernesto de Fiori (Rome, Italy, 1884 - São Paulo, SP, Brazil, 1945) was an influential sculptor, painter, and draftsman. At the age of 19, he moved to Munich to study drawing with Gabriel von Hackl at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Rome in 1905 and likely received guidance from Otto Greiner. Between 1911 and 1914, he lived in Paris, where he began his first sculptures under the tutelage of Hermann Haller and frequented intellectual and artistic circles.

In 1915, after being detained in France for 14 days on espionage charges, he enlisted in the German army and worked as a war correspondent for an Italian newspaper. He later acquired German citizenship and served as a soldier until 1917 when he moved to Zurich. During this time, he clashed with the Dadaist group over the nature of art, advocating for historical continuity in art against the radical breaks proposed by the Dadaists.

In 1936, he moved to Brazil, settling in São Paulo, where he contributed to newspapers of the German and Italian communities, and later to O Estado de S. Paulo. In 1938, he worked on the Arts Integration Program of the Ministry of Education and Health but faced rejections of his sculptures for not meeting official requirements. Simultaneously, he devoted himself to painting, using varied techniques that produced striking contrasts in his works. In the 1940s, he became a central figure in art discussions in São Paulo, exerting significant influence on the city's artistic scene.