3-008-579 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: monument of Charles Albert, the late King of Piedmont, in the Horticultural Society's Gardens, 1862. Marochetti's memorial. 'At the base of this monument stand on guard at each angle a grenadier, a bersagliere, a dragoon, and an infantry soldier...On the west side the Piedmontese force marches forth against the Austrian hordes, whilst the country people wave their hats or kneel in prayer...On the east side is represented the disastrous battle of Novara...The artillery horses...are very spiritedly designed and executed. In the north panel the discouraged and unhappy King hands over his crown and sword to his son Victor Emmanuel; and in the south panel...poor Carlo Alberto, brokenhearted, dies far away in a foreign land, self-exiled from those whose evil fortune he could not bear to be a witness of, and in whose sorrows he so deeply sympathised. On another plinth above this stands the equestrian statue of the Monarch, and at his feet are ranged sitting allegorical figures of Italy, holding in her outstretched hand the thorny crown of martyrdom; Justice, with the sword and scales; Law, with a scroll on which is engraved "Statute, 1848;" and, finally, Victory, with unsheathed brand and fetters snapped in twain...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.