Monuments Class Projects
Architect/Sculptor of Monument
Odoardo Tabacchi
Preview
Medium
Photograph
Keywords
Italian Unification, Kingdom of Sardinia, Neoclassical, Victor Emmanuel II, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Industrialization
Physical Dimensions
3.75 x 2.25 ''
Date of Publication
1865
Date of Publication
c. 1865-1890
Name of Monument
Monumento a Camillo Benso conte di Cavour
Date of Creation of Monument
5-18-1860
City of Monument
Milan
Location within City
Piazza Cavour
State/Province of Monument
Lombardy
Country of Monument
Italy
Description
Cavour Statue
The Cavour Statue stands tall in the busy center of Milan. The statue stands tall just east of the Porcelanosa Milano. It commemorates a key figure in Italian history, Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour (1810-1861). As prime minister, succeeded in unifying a divided Italy under Victor Emmanuel II during the 1860s.
School of Art/Architecture
Neoclassical
Publisher
Giorgio Sommer
Digital Date
2-7-2025
Copyright
Physical Copy of the carte-de-viste is in the public domain. Digital copy scanned by Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
File Format
image/jpeg
Comments
After the Roman Empire’s disintegration, Italy consisted of many small independent states. All of this was to change when Cavour, along with many other noble people, worked to unify the peninsula in the mid 19th century.
Camillo Benso Conte Cavour was born in Turin, in the Kingdom of Sardinia. With his family's aristocratic standing in society, he was able to travel around the European continent and was educated in cities such as Vienna and Paris. He became very politically active, with him promoting liberal policies, including a constitutional monarchy and agricultural reforms.
Cavour became the prime minister for the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1852. Like stated before, the Italian peninsula was far from unified. Italian unification was a goal of Cavour’s foreign policy was the unification of Italy under the monarch he served, Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878). Cavour understood that his nation would not be able to do this massive task alone. So he made alliances with neighboring countries. He was notably able to form an alliance with Napoleon's France. With a French alliance, the Kingdom of Sardinia won the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859. The Italian and French forces defeated the Austrians which then allowed for even more territorial expansion for the Kingdom of Sardinia.
In 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was officially formed, with Cavour acknowledged as its chief architect. Victor Emmanuel II who became Italy’s first monarch. This new nation existed as a constitutional monarchy under VE II, just like Cavour wished for. There was quite a bit of a timing issue when it came to this new country though. Cavour had been very ill from catching Malaria and was far from good health.
Sadly, Cavour was ill at the time, and died on June 6th, 1861, shortly after becoming prime minister. Cavour’s death left a large gap in Italian politics, as the political scene was still very complex. But with his death, he has been remembered in a very positive way. Cavour is considered one of Italy’s foremost founding fathers. He has been seen as a person because of his vision of reason and smooth diplomacy, despite the fact that Italy was unified through several wars.
A monument in Milan was erected in his honor. Odoardo Tabacchi (1836-1905) was the sculptor of this statue. The monument is located in Piazza Cavour, a small square located in downtown Milan. The name Cavour is inscribed onto the statue, as he holds what appears to be either a journal or a book, standing at the top. At the bottom of the statue, a bronze woman stands close to the monument, with her hand directly onto the stone with Cavour’s engraved name. While it would seem that this woman on Cavour’s monument would be a prominent woman in his life, the truth is quite the opposite. The woman was added to the monument and is rumored to be a lover of the sculptor, Odoardo Tabacchi.
Cavour definitely earned himself the monument in the city of Milan today. Milan itself has become an economic powerhouse for Italy, which seems like a fitting place to put the man who influenced the country’s industrialization. The statue stands very tall in the city, and acts as a reminder of the great mind that built Italian unity through military alliances, diplomacy, economics, and modernizing society in the middle of the 19th century.