Allegory of Italy in Mourning - (Alfieri) - Florence, Italy
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neoc1
N 43° 46.121 E 011° 15.714
32T E 682051 N 4848667
The allegorical figure Italy in Mourning weeping over the tomb of Italian playwright and poet Vittorio Alfreri is located in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.
Waymark Code: WM161DA
Location: Toscana, Italy
Date Posted: 04/12/2022
Views: 1
The marble tomb of Count Vittorio Alfieri was sculpted by Antonio Canova. The tomb features a allegorical robed female figure Italy wearing a mural crown representing the city of Florence. She is weeping over a marble sarcophagus set on an oval base decorated with a lyre and a pair of wreaths. Italy is looking down on the sarcophagus and is holding a handkerchief in her right hand which she has placed on her forehead. The top of the sarcophagus has laurel wreath in the center and with a mask of Tragedy on the left corner and Comedy on the right corners. The front of the sarcophagus is decorated with a medallion portrait of Vittorio Alfieri. Which is inscribed:VICTORIVS·ALFERIVS·ASTENSI = Vittorio Alfieri of Asti.
An rectangular dado on the base is inscribed:
VICTORIO ALFERIO ASTENSI
ALOISIA E PRINCIPIBVS STOLBERGIS
ALBANIAE COMITISSA
M P C AN MDCCCX
To Vittorio Alfieri of Asti,
Louise, Princess of Stolberg,
Countess of Albany,
M P C (placed this monument) MDCCCX.
Count Vittorio Alfieri was born on January 16, 1749, Asti, Kingdom of Sardinia. He was an Italian tragic poet and dramatist whose writings were aimed at the overthrow of tyranny and to revive the national spirit of Italy.
He was educated in a military academy in Turin, Italy. He became an ensign but soon left the military and traveled through Europe were he developed an appreciation of literature. He wrote his first tragedy Cleopatra which was performed in 1775 to great acclaim. Between 1776 and 1786 he wrote 19 tragedies and several comedies including Saul, Maria Stuart, Antigone, Filippo, Polinice, Virginia, Agamennone, Oreste, Rosmunda, Ottavia, Timoleone, and Merope.
Alfreri also many sonnets, five odes on American independence, an ode on the fall of the Bastille in Paris, one opera Abele and the poem of Etruria
Vittorio Alfreri died on October 8, 1803, in Florence, Italy at age 54.