Schede
The marquis Malvezzi Angelelli's funerary monument (1827-1833) is located in the Colombario hall, under the arch of the second transept. The sculpture, made by Lorenzo Bartolini (1770-1850), represents Pallade, portrayed in the traditional pose of dominance and keeping the lance of power in her right hand. Near her left side is placed the "Genio della Morte" (Death Genius) sculpture, which concludes the neoclassical symbolism of Victory. The statuary group was commissioned by Principe Baciocchi around 1827 as part of the funerary monument of his wife Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi (dead in 1820). The group should have been placed in Marsigli Rossi chapel inside the Church of San Petronio, where the Prince had transferred the family tomb from the Trieste's Campomarzio chapel. After the preliminary project, the new sculptural group was inspired by an autobiographic anecdote, probably of the same Bartolini: immaginai di fare in gruppo e siccome volevano appropriare giustamente la magnanimità di Elisa, pensai dunque al destino tanto citato da Sant'Elena, e lo presi per tema, facendo la magnanimità che abbraccia il suo destino (I imaged a group and as they wanted to point out the magnanimity of Elisa, I thought about Sant'Elena's destiny and chose for my theme the Magnanimity embracing her destiny). The group was finally sold to marquis Malvezzi Angelelli, professor of Literature at the University of Bologna, which used it for his family tomb.
Ilaria Cresta