Nicolò Barabino depicts the death of Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, an ambitious duke who snatched possessions from France in the seventeenth century, and was considered as an example to follow in the fight against “the foreigner”. This imposing canvas was commissioned by Umberto I and subsequently donated to city of Genoa in 1891, to honour the memory of the artist who unexpectedly passed away that year. Sadly unfinished, the signs of the underlying drawing are still evident and it clearly documents the artist's progressive approach to symbolism.