Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy
Baron Marochetti
1838
Bronze, on a granite plinth
Piazza San Carlo
Turin
Image obtained from Willard, facing p. 134.
Jacqueline Banerjee
This was Marochetti's first equestrian statue, and it made his reputation for this kind of work. It is a bravura historical likeness, showing the sixteenth-century Italian hero in the very act of sheathing his sword, while controlling his lively horse (see Ward-Jackson). This made a strong statement at the time of the Risorgimento, and Marochetti's presentation of the statue to Turin demonstrated the strength of his feelings for his birthplace. According to Ashton Rollins Willard,
The work scored an immediate success, both with the general public and the connoisseurs. The former were pleased by the fire and dash in the movement of the figure and its association with a great popular here; and the latter liked it because it had something of the medieval spirit, and seemed like a plastic exposition of the novel principles of romanticism. (134).
This work makes a useful background to Marochetti's Richard the Lionheart, another figure dramatically embodying national pride and fighting spirit, this time in his adopted country, England.
References
Ward-Jackson, Philip. "(Pietro) Carlo Giovanni Battista Marochetti." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. 22 Oct. 2010.
Willard, Ashton Rollins. History of Modern Italian Art. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1902.
Last modified 19 November 2010