The Shield of Garibaldi, created by Antonio Ximenes, returns today to Palazzo Venezia in Rome after a thorough restoration, offering the public a work that combines executive quality and symbolic value. The exhibition, curated by VIVE Director Edith Gabrielli, marks the conclusion of the cycle Reintegrations. From Deposits to the Visiting Route, a project that enhances and reintegrates into the museum itinerary works hitherto kept in storage.
The presentation of the work is accompanied by a lecture by Valerio Terraroli, entitled The Shield of Garibaldi. Antonio Ximenes and the Celebration of the Garibaldi Myth, which takes place in the Sala del Refettorio of Palazzo Venezia. The lecture is introduced by the Director of VIVE together with Colonel Paolo Befera, Commander of the Operational Department of the Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection Command, emphasizing the role of protection and enhancement of the national historical heritage. The Reintegrations cycle is designed to bring back to public enjoyment a selection of works kept in storage, thanks to the systematic cataloging of VIVE’s collections. The project, directed by Edith Gabrielli with the collaboration of Alessandro Tomei, Barbara Agosti and ValerioTerraroli, led to the creation of an online catalog available on the Institute’s website, allowing critical access to the preserved works.
"The so-called Shield of Garibaldi by Antonio Ximenes,“ says Edith Gabrielli, director of VIVE - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, ”represents a true masterpiece of celebratory art of the late 19th century, recovered to the heritage of the State thanks to the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The work, created to commemorate Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Expedition of the Thousand, returns to public view following a careful and expert restoration. The goal of ’Reintegrations’ is precisely to engage visitors in an experience of knowledge and in-depth historical and artistic study of the VIVE’s collections."
The Shield of Garibaldi, which will be on display in the Altoviti Room until April 12, 2026, is a chiseled bronze, partially gilded and silver-plated artifact commissioned by the Sicilian people to celebrate Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Expedition of the Thousand. The sculpture is inspired by the classical clypeus, the traditional round, domed shield used in antiquity by the Greeks and Romans, and features a full-round portrait of Garibaldi in gold in the center, with the names of the conquered Sicilian cities on either side and Garibaldi’s inscriptions on the outer rim. The work represents a rare example of the late 19th-century revival of the model of the parade shield with a portrait of the leader. Among the events that have marked its recent history, the theft suffered in the early 2000s and the subsequent recovery in 2019 thanks to the intervention of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage have returned to the Central Museum of the Risorgimento a work of great historical and artistic interest, now once again accessible to the public. The restoration, entrusted to the Artificia Consortium, made it possible to restore the legibility of the details and the material quality of the object.
The Reintegrations cycle represents an important piece of VIVE’s cultural programming, allowing the rediscovery of often little-known or invisible works, transforming them into testimonies of national artistic and cultural history. Systematic cataloging has covered various eras: Alessandro Tomei has followed works from the Middle Ages, Barbara Agosti those from the Modern Age, and Valerio Terraroli those from the 19th and 20th centuries. The initiative thus makes it possible to give back to the public a context in which critical analysis and digital documentation complement physical enjoyment. Garibaldi’s Shield constitutes a landmark within this cycle. The catalog entry was written by Professor Stefania Cretella and allows for an in-depth look at the history of the work, from its conception by Antonio Ximenes to its donation to the condottiero on May 11, 1878. Its placement in Sala Altoviti allows visitors to take a close look at the bronze workmanship, gilding and silvering, and to understand the importance of the work as a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento and the Garibaldi myth.
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| VIVE exhibits the Shield of Garibaldi by Antonio Ximenes at Palazzo Venezia |
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