Margherita di Savoia

Eredi Monteverde 1919 Genova - donazione

Monteverde, Giulio

GAM0208

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 118.5; Larghezza: 60; Profondità: 34

gesso- scultura

The daughter of the Duke of Genoa Ferdinand of Savoy and Elisabeth of Saxony, Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna (1851-1926) married at the age of seventeen her cousin Umberto, Prince of Piedmont, who in 1878 became King of Italy following the death of her father Victor Emmanuel II. The young woman, who lived in the Turin of the Risorgimento, assumed the role of the first Italian queen with brilliant and impeccable manners even during the most difficult events.
Margherita was portrayed by Monteverde in 1877. As she was sensitive to the arts and patroness of musicians and men of letters, including Giosuè Carducci, Margaret allowed the artist fifteen days to pose at the Villa Reale in Monza where he was a guest and, struck and amused by that "beautiful old man, with a Leonardo-esque head", portrayed him in turn. In those years Margherita had not yet become sovereign, but she was "the most intellectual of Queens", in Monteverde's own thoughts. The sculptor, author of monuments and portraits for public patrons and the Italian and foreign elite, was one of the official artists of the young Italian nation and received international recognition for the quality of his work.
A member of the Order of the Crown of Italy, in 1879 Monteverde received the title of Knight of the Civil Order of Savoy, reserved for men of letters and artists; in 1885, the year of his portrait to the king for the Senate, he was awarded the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.