Artist who changed the face of monumental and funerary art
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| Giulio Monteverde's work broke new ground in the art of sculpture |
Monteverde, who spent much of his working life in Rome, is best known for his sculptures commemorating the achievements of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin and Edward Jenner, the enigmatic beauty of his Angel of the Resurrection funerary monument, the 10-metre bronze sculpture Il pensiero at the Altare della Patria in Rome, and statues of national figures such as Risorgimento leader Giuseppe Mazzini and the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini.
For many years a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Monteverde established that secular themes such as scientific progress and medical advancement could be represented in sculpture with the same heroic grace as mythical or religious figures.
His Angel of the Resurrection, commissioned by the wealthy merchant Francesco Oneta in 1882 to stand guard over his family tomb at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa, a sensual figure with an expression of inscrutable detachment, is considered by some critics to be his masterpiece, lauded as the ‘Mona Lisa of cemetery art’.
Born into a working class family, Monteverde displayed an early interest in art that prompted his father, Vittorio, a weaver, to apprentice him to a wood carver of his acquaintance in Casale Monferrato, his home town, some 70km (42 miles) from Bistagno.
From there he moved to Genoa, where he remained for four years as a student at the Ligurian Academy of Fine Arts, while supporting himself with work as a furniture maker.
He married young. His wife, Rosa, would prove to be a steadfast supporter of his artistic ambitions, even in the toughest times. When he won a prestigious scholarship to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1865, she encouraged him to take it, even though the accompanying grant would barely cover their living costs.
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| Monteverde challenged convention with his Angel of the Resurrection |
His first major breakthrough came in 1867. Perhaps with his young daughters as models, he carved a sculpture entitled Bambini che giocano con il gatto (Children Playing with a Cat).
It is said that an art dealer offered him 5,000 lire for it, which was a substantial sum, but that Rosa, already displaying a sharp business brain, advised him to turn it down, reasoning that a dealer would always offer less than the actual value. They later sold the piece directly to King Charles I of Württemberg for double the amount, enough to give them financial security.
Children continued to be a theme in his work as three major pieces in the early 1870s established Monteverde’s international reputation.
In Colombo giovinetto (The Young Columbus), he imagined the future explorer as a slender, rather graceful boy, sitting on a mooring bollard looking thoughtfully out to sea. The work won a gold medal at the Italian Exhibition of 1870 in Parma.
He followed this with Il Genio di Franklin (The Genius of Franklin), which won a silver medal at the 1872 Milan Exposition. The piece depicts a young angel holding a lightning rod, commemorating Benjamin Franklin's scientific discovery in proving that lightning was electricity and inventing the lightning rod to protect buildings in storms.
The following year, he won a gold medal at the 1873 Vienna Universal Exposition with his somewhat daring sculpture Edward Jenner Vaccinating His Son Against Smallpox, showing the English doctor injecting his experimental smallpox serum into the arm of his own infant son. The piece was groundbreaking for the stark realism of the way the figures are posed and for Monteverde’s brilliance in capturing the intense concentration in Jenner’s face.
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| Monteverde's sculpture of Edward Jenner was his most daring work |
The house combined a vast workspace and private gallery on the ground floor, while the upper levels housed an elegant residence, where he lived with Rosa and their daughters.
By this time a public figure, both a councillor in Rome and a member of the Senate, Monteverde’s work over the next couple of decades included monumental statues of Giuseppe Mazzini in Buenos Aires, Argentina (with a copy in Milan’s Piazza Della Repubblica), of Vittorio Emanuele II in Rovigo and Bologna, and of Vincenzo Bellini, now in Piazza Stesicoro in Catania.
Yet it was through his funerary art that Monteverde left an indelible stamp on late 19th-century sculpture by altering the visual vocabulary of monumentality and mourning.
Traditionally, funerary monuments were characterised by sorrowful figures or sometimes terrifying images of death. By contrast, his Angel of the Resurrection, also known as Monteverde’s Angel, is a soft, even seductive figure, her elegant form wrapped in flowing silk and with a face of almost Botticellian features, head tilted forwards, her expression revealing little emotion.
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| Colombo giovinetto - his first major success |
Giulio Monteverde died at the age of almost eighty in October 1917 in Rome.
His colossal Il pensiero - The Thought - the 10-metre-high allegorical sculpture cast in gilded bronze, positioned on the east side of the grand Vittoriano (Altare della Patria) gate in Rome, was therefore his last great work.
Commissioned as part of a monumental complex dedicated to King Victor Emmanuel II, it combines classical imagery with the patriotic and ideological ideals of post-unification Italy. It features a winged personification of Il pensiero resting a protective hand on the shoulder of La saggezza (Wisdom), who is adorned with the classical helmet and shield of Minerva. La saggezza in turn reaches out to lift Il popolo italiano (The Italian People) lying at their feet. Three other figures on the lower flanks represent a counter narrative: La discordia (Discord), La tirannia (Tyranny), and Il genio della guerra (The Genius of War).
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| The Villino Monteverdi, which housed the sculptor's extensive studio as well as his family home |
The Castro Pretorio rione, where Monteverde chose to build his Villino Monteverde house and studio, is home to some of Rome's grandest Imperial ruins and late 19th-century architecture. Situated on the northeast edge of the historic centre of the city, it wraps around two sides of the city’s Termini railway station. Historic sights situated with Castro Pretorio, which takes its names from the Praetorian Guard camp that existed there in ancient Rome, include the Baths of Diocletian, the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, which was built within the ruins of the Diocletian baths, Piazza della Repubblica and Porta Pia - like the basilica, designed by Michelangelo - close to where the Italian Army breached the Aurelian Walls in 1870 to capture Rome and complete the unification of Italy. In the 1870s, it became an area of massive urban expansion, the area chosen for the development of a prestigious residential area to house an influx of government workers, politicians, and wealthy elites, after Rome became Italy’s new capital. Characterised by what became known as Umbertine-style architecture - after King Umberto I - its houses had grand, classical facades, high ceilings, and symmetric windows, with the focus on elegant townhouses or small villas - villini - rather than massive apartment blocks. Piazza dell’Indipendenza was at the heart of this new development.
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| The Gipsoteca Giulio Monteverde in Bistagno houses the original plaster casts for many of his great works |
Bistagno, Giulio Monteverde’s birthplace, sits within the province of Alessandria, nestled in the picturesque hills of the Langhe and Monferrato wine region, a short drive from the historic thermal spa town of Acqui Terme, and about 100km (60 miles) southeast of the regional capital, Turin. A quiet village that preserves the medieval layout of its historic centre, it takes pride in its connection with Monteverde, not least through the Gipsoteca Giulio Monteverde, a dedicated gallery of plaster casts in Corso Carlo Testa. After Monteverde died in Rome in 1917, his daughters inherited the original plaster casts, studies, and models used to carve his iconic marble masterpieces. They were eventually donated to Bistagno. The museum spans seven halls and exhibits 40 original plaster masterpieces, including the original studies for The Genius of Franklin. The Gipsoteca also has a copy of Colombo giovinetto, the original of which is in the Castello d’Albertis in Genoa, having been commissioned by the sea captain, Enrico Alberto d'Albertis in 1870.
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More reading:
How Vincenzo Gemito’s sculpture celebrated figures from Naples street life
Why sculptor Pietro Canonica’s grasp of realism won him favour with European royalty
La Pietà - Michelangelo's masterpiece
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