“And the studio is what it must be for a special artist. Large with a superb vault, it has large windows, where the light rains down and waves of perfume enter in May. The sculptor wanders around it, encircled in a white stole, held at the sides by a large leather belt, and the head shaded by a velvet cap," so wrote the poet Clelia Bertini Attilji about Giulio Monteverde (Bistagno 1837- Rome 1917), who painted her portrait. Official sculptor of post-unification Italy, senator and freemason, he was a very active sculptor in many Italian cities and creator of new secular iconographies, linked to themes of scientific progress.

From the studio of the Piedmontese sculptor come 40 works, including original models, sketches and studies modelled by the same sculptor, which were donated to the city of Genoa by his daughters in 1919, of these come some works exhibited in the fourth room: “Il Genio di Franklin” (1871), “L’Ingenuità” (1872), “Putto che scherza col gallo” (1875).

Also by Monteverde is “Jenner”, a splendid marble with gentle anecdotal naturalism, purchased by the Dukes Di Galliera and displayed, until 2004, in the Galleria di Palazzo Bianco. Jenner, inspired by the figure the doctor who experimented with the vaccine technique to combat smallpox in 1796, was awarded the gold medal at the 1873 Vienna Universal Exposition.