After decades of absence, Liberty, a work in marble by Vincenzo Vela (Ligornetto, 1820 - Mendrisio, 1891) returned yesterday morning, Aug. 14, to occupy the place it was originally intended for, inside the Crypt of the Famedio of Milan’s Monumental Cemetery. The sculpture, placed in the postwar Cascina Conigo in Noviglio, was returned to the city thanks to a donation from the Medici family of Marignano. The work, one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century funerary art and linked to an important chapter of the Risorgimento, thus returns to be an integral part of the artistic and historical heritage of the Lombard capital.
The statue was made in 1872 by Vincenzo Vela. Trained at the Brera Academy starting in 1835, Vela was very active in Milan both as a portraitist and as a funerary sculptor, working for leading aristocratic families. An artist of great civic commitment, he always remained faithful to the ideals of freedom and social justice, values that shine through clearly in this work as well.
In the 19th century, funerary art was a major field for sculptors, offering them the opportunity to create busts, reliefs and complex monuments. Liberty fits fully into this tradition and is a significant example of Vela’s ability to combine formal rigor and symbolic force. The work is also particularly well-known thanks to the plaster sketch preserved at the Vincenzo Vela Museum in Ligornetto, which testifies to the creative process.
The sculpture depicts a kneeling female figure with long wavy hair falling over her shoulders. The woman unrolls a scroll toward the viewer, while a sash holding her draped dress bears an inscription with the title of the work. The base on which it stands has two bas-reliefs on its sides depicting brothers Giacomo and Filippo Ciani, to whom the work was dedicated. Italian patriots active during the Risorgimento uprisings, the Ciani lived for long periods in Geneva, where they met Giuseppe Mazzini, and in London, before settling in Canton Ticino in the late 1820s. Both were initially buried at Milan’s Monumental Cemetery.
After being stored for years in Cascina Conigo, once owned by the Ciani brothers, the statue has now returned to its original location. For its placement in the Crypt of the Famedio, the so-called “ice technique” was adopted, an engineering procedure that involves the use of blocks of ice as a temporary support, allowing particularly heavy elements to be moved and placed with precision.
The decision to bring the work back to the Monumental responds to a specific desire to return a piece of its historical and artistic memory to the city. The return of Liberty is not only an operation to enhance Milan’s sculptural heritage, but also an act of reconnection with the Risorgimento and civic values embodied by both the Ciani brothers and the work’s author.
In the coming months, the City of Milan will launch a restoration project, entrusted to the Brera Academy’s School of Restoration. The operation will preserve the material integrity of the sculpture and ensure its proper preservation for the future. The return of the statue was made possible thanks to the generosity of the Medici family of Marignano, whose gesture made it possible to overcome the logistical and organizational difficulties involved in the transfer. The operation involved restorers, technicians and engineers, who were engaged in ensuring safe transportation and repositioning according to the highest precision criteria.
Now Liberty can once again be admired by visitors to the Monumental Cemetery, placed in a context that enhances its historical and symbolic significance. The work’s return to the Famedio Crypt represents not only an artistic recovery, but also a moment of reflection on the city’s history and the link between art and civic memory.
“Today we return to the city of Milan a work of great artistic and symbolic value,” says Councillor for Civic Services Gaia Romani. “A female figure who embodies, with her proud gaze, the values of freedom, struggle for independence and social justice. The heritage of what is recognized by all as a true open-air museum is enriched even more thanks to the generosity of private citizens, to whom the Administration expresses its thanks. An intervention, this one, that fits in the groove of enhancing the value of a truly unique place, where we are committed to bringing together two dimensions, the private one of remembrance and the public one of historical memory.”
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| After decades of absence, Vincenzo Vela's Liberty returns to Milan's Monumental Cemetery |
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