Schede
The monument was commissioned to Franceschi by the marquis Francesco and Pompeo, sons of the late Benedetto Ratta Garganelli, a virtuous person, who died on 25 April 1804. The arc 72 was bought in 1803 by the marquis Benedetto for his brother, and all the members of his family are buried inside it. This is why the façade of the monument is covered with numerous gravestones. The archive documents report that the project of the monument was presented by Antonio Zuccarini in March 1822, and the execution of the bas-relief was entrusted to the sculptor Alessandro Franceschi. Zecchi and Chierici, instead, attributed the work to Franceschi, but not the execution of the project, which both of them assign to Vincenzo Vannini. This monument is very similar to others in Certosa; in particular, to the monument carved by Roncagli and dedicated to the marchioness Olimpia Spada, where the figure who is sitting on the sarcophagus is the specular image of the figure depicted in the monument of Ratta Garganelli. The latter represents the allegory of Hope, which can be identified in the anchor (now lost) that she used to hold in her left hand.
Tiziana Quaglietta
Translation from the italian language thanks to the 2017/18 students Margherita Sforza, Sofia Guida, Rodolfo Rigosi of the Galvani high school in Bologna, supervised by the teacher Annamaria Marconi.
