Cesare Beccaria, 19th century

early nineteenth century
Cesare Beccaria
Bronze, 49 x 13 x 15 cm

The bronze statue examined faithfully reproduces the famous Milanese monument by Giuseppe Grandi (1843-1894) dedicated to Cesare Beccaria. The work, from the top of a high base in white granite from Montorfano, dominates the square of the same name in Milan, the sad stage of capital executions at the time of Austrian rule, in a bronze copy from 1914 to replace the original stone statue which already at the beginning of the new century was showing serious signs of deterioration. The marble became part of the collections of the Gallery of Modern Art and is now located inside the Palace of Justice in Milan. The initiative regarding the erection of a monument dedicated to Cesare Beccaria originates in 1865, in support of the proposal to abolish the death penalty, from the pages of the Cronaca grigio, the Milanese scapigliatura magazine directed by Cletto Arrighi. In 1868 Giuseppe Grandi took part in the competition for the monument. The commission decided, in the second selection restricted to just two sketches, to assign the creation of the sculpture to Grandi's project. The Monument to Cesare Beccaria was completed, with some changes compared to the original sketch, in December 1870 and was inaugurated on 18 March 1871 in the square of the same name.
The sculpture portrays Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, the Italian jurist, philosopher, economist and man of letters, a leading figure of the Enlightenment linked to the intellectual circles of Milan, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (1738-1794), represented in an everyday attitude, with one arm behind your back, the other on your chest. His main work, the treatise On Crimes and Punishments, a political and legal analysis against the death penalty and torture, conducted on the basis of rationalism and pragmatism, inspired, among other things, the new penal code wanted by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany. The references regarding the abolition of the death penalty are reiterated in the monument both from the extract of the aforementioned work by Beccaria, celebrated in its centenary of the publication of 1764, shown on the south-west plaque, and through the allegorical bronze bas-reliefs representing Civilization which bears the attributes of Justice, sitting on a large bench in an austere attitude, and Time, who takes flight, covering his face, over a landscape strewn with death and destruction.
In Beccaria's portrait the surface of the bronze is enlivened by a strong chiaroscuro which will then be accentuated in Grandi's subsequent works also thanks to the proximity and comparison with the painters Tranquillo Cremona and Daniele Ranzoni, protagonists of the Milanese Scapigliatura. As in the paintings of Cremona and Ranzoni, also in Grandi's sculptures the contours seem to flake under the light, opening up new expressive possibilities that will be collected and carried forward by the younger artists, including first and foremost Medardo Rosso.