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The son commissioned his father’s
statue in 1818, shortly after the Bourbons came back
into possession of their kingdom after the Napoleonic wars. (The first
thing they did, of course, was finish the church,
itself, in 1816. See that link above.) The sculptor
was Antonio Canova
(1757-1822), a northern Italian and one of the most
famous sculptors of his age. Actually, son Ferdinand
only reconfirmed the original commission to Canova
given by Joseph Bonaparte in 1807 during the French reign in Naples. It was
finished in 1819 and placed in the square in 1829. The
monarch is garbed in classical Roman fashion.
Ferdinand also commissioned the statue to himself at
the same time. He is, like his father, mounted and
dressed in classical fashion. The sculptor was also
Canova, but he died and the work was completed by the
Neapolitan, Antonio
Calì (1788-1866).
Both statues were threatened by a
mob in the wake of Garibaldi’s
entry into Naples in 1860. Fortunately—I think—a
revolutionary priest, father Gavazzi, jumped up on one
of the statues and stayed the frenzied wrecking crew
by saying that they should save the statues because
they could then replace the two heads of the monarchs
with those of Garibaldi and Victor Emanuel (eventually
the first king of the new, united Italy). I don’t know
what became of that plan, but at least it calmed the
crowd. |
The entire project of statues in the
square was not one of Canova’s favorites. He
apparently accepted the original French commission
when the plan was to dedicate the work to the then
Emperor Napoleon. (The church, itself, was originally
meant to be a pantheon-like tribute to Napoleon.)
After the restoration of the monarchy, Ferdinand
called Canova to Naples to discuss finishing the work.
Canova complained to a friend that he had undertaken a
long trip to discuss something that just as easily
could have been discussed by letter. Perhaps after his
Psyche Revived by Love’s