The city collected the money for thirteen years, a lira at a time, starting in 1921. By the time the monument was unveiled the subscription had earned so much interest that it was worth more than four hundred thousand lire.
At a glance
In Piazza delle Carceri, opposite the Castello dell’Imperatore, a stone stele carries a three-metre group in white Carrara marble: a winged youth supporting a veiled figure whose hands are clasped. The work is by Antonio Maraini and is called L’Eroismo che conforta il Dovere — Heroism comforting Duty. It was unveiled on 22 May 1934 in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III.
Key facts
- Sculptor: Antonio Maraini (Rome, 5 April 1886 – Florence, 23 May 1963)
- Title: L’Eroismo che conforta il Dovere
- Unveiled: 22 May 1934, with Vittorio Emanuele III and the Minister of Public Works Araldo di Crollalanza
- Materials: white Carrara marble for the three-metre group; green Prato marble originally faced the lower part, now gone; bronze wreaths and brazier
- Heraldry: three shields — a soldier’s helmet, the arms of Savoy, the arms of the city of Prato
- Paid for by: public subscription begun in 1921 by the local association of disabled veterans — about 350,000 lire, over 400,000 with interest by 1934
- Address: Piazza delle Carceri, Prato
History
The initiative did not come from the town hall. In 1921 the Prato section of the national association of the war-disabled began raising money by public subscription, later joined by the veterans’ and the disabled associations, and kept at it for years: roughly 350,000 lire were collected, and by 1934 the accumulated interest had taken the fund past 400,000. That is the fact worth holding on to about this monument — it was bought by the people whose relatives it commemorates, over thirteen years, before the regime that unveiled it had any use for it.
The commission went to Antonio Maraini, a sculptor who was by then also secretary-general of the Venice Biennale and one of the most institutionally powerful figures in Italian art. The unveiling on 22 May 1934 was a state occasion: the King took his place in the tribune and the monument was uncovered before him, with the Minister of Public Works present, on the same day the city’s new railway station was inaugurated.
The green Prato marble that faced the lower part of the structure is no longer there. What remains is the sandstone core, with the pale scars where the facing was.
What you see
A votive altar rather than a column: a broad stone mass rising in stages, with the marble group set against a plain stele at the top. The group is two figures. The one in front is a nude youth with a great folded wing, his face turned up; behind and beside him a taller figure stands wrapped from head to foot in a veil, hands together, eyes lowered. He holds her; she is the one being comforted. It reverses the usual arrangement, in which a winged Victory crowns a soldier — here the winged figure is doing consolation rather than glory.
Across the face of the stele, in widely spaced capitals with V for U, runs the dedication: AI SVOI EROICI CADVTI on the left and PRATO on the right. Lower down, set into the stonework, are the bronzes — wreaths, a brazier — and the three shields with the helmet, the Savoy arms and the arms of the city.
The site does a great deal of the work. Piazza delle Carceri is one of the strangest squares in Tuscany: the memorial stands with Giuliano da Sangallo’s Santa Maria delle Carceri on one side and the black stone walls of Frederick II’s castle on the other, so that a monument of 1934 is measured against a church of the 1480s and a fortress of the 1240s.
Practical information
- Open square, always accessible, no charge.
- The inscription reads best in the morning, with the sun on the stele.
- Allow 15 minutes; Santa Maria delle Carceri and the Castello dell’Imperatore are on the same square.
Getting there
Piazza delle Carceri is in the historic centre of Prato, a few minutes on foot from Prato Porta al Serraglio station. GPS: 43.87928, 11.09773 — open in Google Maps.
Sources
- Wikipedia (Italian) — Monumento ai caduti (Prato): the attribution to Antonio Maraini and the inauguration of 22 May 1934; the title L’Eroismo che conforta il Dovere; the King’s presence in the tribune and that of the Minister of Public Works Araldo di Crollalanza; the three-metre group in white Carrara marble and the green Prato marble of the lower part, now destroyed; the bronze wreaths and brazier; the three shields with the soldier’s helmet, the arms of Savoy and the arms of Prato; the position in Piazza delle Carceri opposite the Castello dell’Imperatore; the subscription begun in 1921 by the local association of the war-disabled, about 350,000 lire and more than 400,000 with interest by 1934.
- Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani — Maraini, Antonio, for the sculptor’s dates and career.
- The inscription AI SVOI EROICI CADVTI · PRATO and the description of the two figures were read from the contributor’s photographs.
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