The Preliminaries of Peace

At the time when he was modelling the equestrian group and the two reliefs on the base of the monument to Emanuele Filiberto, with the explicit civic intention of supporting the new liberal course of Piedmontese politics, Marochetti stood in the vanguard of all European culture, from the staid Thorvaldsen, by then close to abdication, to the earnest Bartolini and the French sculptors themselves. The stimulating suggestions of history allowed no lingering over the soft refinement of style or the graces of modelling; the sharp cut of the masses and the daring, capricious modelling were well suited to that spontaneous manifestation of emotions, feelings and ideas of which the sculptor wished to be the vehicle and interpreter: no longer ecstatic contemplation, but a passionate call to action.