Antonio Canova

Artist: Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757 - Venice 1822)
Title: Monumental tomb of Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803)
Date: 1804-1810
Material and tecnique: marble
Dimensions: 440 x 240 cm
Position: Basilica of Santa Croce, south aisle, between the third and fourth bays

When poet and playwright Vittorio Alfieri died in 1803, Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, the Countess of Albany and his last flame, commissioned the celebrated sculptor Antonio Canova to produce a monumental tomb for the sum of 10,000 scudi. The following year the sculptor made a design and a plaster model of a bas-relief showing Italy weeping before a bust of Alfieri and a figure, possibly the Genius of Tragedy, but on the advice of the painter François Xavier Fabre, the Countess expressed a desire for a monument with a greater visual impact including at least one statue in the round. After devouring the poet's works and labouring long and hard, Canova met her request by devising a monumental tomb which he himself describes as being: "as solemn and majestic as I could make it, so that the nature of my work should match the loftiness of the great poet's pen".

Given the monument's importance, it was decided to erect it in a prestigious position in the south aisle between the tombs of Michelangelo and Machiavelli, which was already occupied by other monuments that had to be moved. 

The monument centres around the majestic figure of Italy weeping before a tomb adorned with a medallion showing the bust of Alfieri in profile. A horn of plenty lies before the tomb, while the masks at the sides allude to the art of tragedy and the laurel wreath and lyre to poetry. The monument admirably combines the formal perfection of its classicising costumes and decoration with a celebration of the poet through the depiction of a suffering country paying tribute to the tomb of its illustrious son.

Serving as a model for all 19th century sculptors, the tomb marks the beginning of the conception of Santa Croce – echoing Foscolo's Sepolcri of 1807 – as the resting place of the great men of the past to serve as a source of inspiration for posterity.