Pasquale Romanelli and Prince Oddone – “Young Beethoven” Statue | Beethoven
Pasquale Romanelli (1812–1887) and Prince Oddone (Odone) of Savoy (1846–1866)
This article examines the sculptor Pasquale Romanelli (1812–1887) and Prince Oddone of Savoy (1846–1866), focusing on Romanelli’s Beethovenian statue “Young Beethoven,” today preserved at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Genoa–Nervi. A central figure of the Tuscan sculptural tradition and heir to Lorenzo Bartolini’s atelier, Romanelli created works of historical, patriotic, and literary inspiration. The article also highlights Prince Oddone’s role as collector and patron, whose bequest brought the statue into the Genoese collections.
The Sculptor: Pasquale Romanelli
Father of the sculptor Raffaello Romanelli and grandfather of Romano, he was the progenitor of the celebrated Tuscan family of artists known as the Romanelli.
Trained at first under Luigi Pampaloni, and later with the Prato-born Neoclassical sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, of whom he became assistant and favoured pupil. Upon the master’s death in 1850, he succeeded him in the direction of the renowned studio, in order to complete the works left unfinished.
He then established his own workshop in the deconsecrated eighteenth‑century church of the Archangel Raphael at no. 70 Borgo San Frediano in Florence, the workshop in which he had already been working with Lorenzo Bartolini.
The atelier remained active until 1887 and was then handed down to Raffaello Romanelli and to Romano. The workshop is still owned by the Romanelli family, and one may still admire there today the plasters and masterpieces of the dynasty. (See the attached photographs showing the detail of the central bronze, the façade on which it is placed, and the two photographs of the complete plaque that the Municipality of Florence installed in the year 1922.)
Among his original works, in addition to portraits, notable are the statue of Francesco Ferrucci (1847, Florence, Loggiato degli Uffizi) and the funerary monument of Lorenzo Bartolini (Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence).
A protagonist of the Risorgimento, Pasquale was the author of monuments dedicated to illustrious Tuscans, ancient and modern, such as the one to Francesco Ferrucci (Florence, Loggiato degli Uffizi) or to Vittorio Fossombroni (Arezzo, Piazza San Francesco), and of works of patriotic inspiration such as Italia Delusa and Genio d’Italia (exhibited in Paris in 1859). But he was also an interpreter of literary and genre subjects in works such as Ophelia, Esmeralda, Ruth, Washington and Franklin as children, today dispersed in collections and museums throughout the world.
Prince Oddone Eugenio Maria of Savoy, Duke of Monferrato
At the age of two he was struck by a severely disabling illness; he was therefore placed at the margins of court life in the House of Savoy because of his precarious state of health. Endowed with uncommon intelligence, initiative, and intellectual liveliness, he devoted himself to study, taking an interest during his brief existence in various subjects, both scientific and artistic.
He spent the summer of 1861 in Pegli (then an autonomous town not far from Genoa), where he chose Villa Lomellini Rostan as his residence; besides the mild climate, which benefited his fragile physical condition, the choice was dictated by his great passion for the sea, born in him already in the years of his earliest childhood, when the royal family spent holiday periods in Spezia. His return to court in the autumn was brief, since very soon, once the positive effect that life on the Riviera had brought him both in body and in spirit was noticed, he was granted by his father permission to move permanently to Genoa, taking residence in the Royal Palace.
The Genoese period was characterised by a joyful and profound study of technical and artistic disciplines: from geography to music, from languages to nautical science (for this interest he was attached, by his father’s will, to the Royal Navy, and appointed capitano di vascello).
A protector and promoter of the arts and of works of the intellect, he instituted four annual prizes for the students of the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, of which he was acclaimed president ad honorem, as he was also of the Società Ligure di Storia Patria.
His house, enriched by a library of over one thousand volumes, soon became a place of gathering and cultural debate for the most illustrious figures of the city in the fields of art and science: civil and military authorities, university professors, academics, artists, among whom the sculptor Santo Varni, who was his adviser and friend, Tammar Luxoro, and Domenico Pasquale Cambiaso.
On 5 June 1862 he departed with his brothers for an educational journey towards the East, on board the steam frigate Governolo: he visited Cagliari, Palermo, Catania, Messina, Naples, Pompeii, until reaching Constantinople on 16 August, where the journey came to an end. The royal travellers returned to Genoa on 15 September. The journey profoundly influenced the spirit of the young Oddone, kindling in him an interest for antiquities and classical art and enabling him to begin a rich collection of works of art.
In the summer of 1863 he was able to undertake a new journey to Sardinia and to Naples, where he took an interest in archaeology, financing excavations directed by the illustrious archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli.
Returned to Genoa, he devoted himself to the study of natural history, under the direction of Michele Lessona, particularly to malacology, assembling a rich collection of shells, algae, and hummingbirds (today displayed at the Giacomo Doria Museum of Natural History).
In the summer of 1864 the physicians did not allow him to undertake a new journey, but advised sea bathing; thus the young Oddone became a guest of Marquis Ala Ponzoni in the elegant Villa Durazzo Bombrini, in the seaside town of Cornigliano (today a district of the western outskirts of Genoa). Having returned there the following year, Oddone conceived the idea of choosing it as his permanent residence, the centre of his collections and of his studies, and thanks to the intercession of his godfather, Prince Eugenio of Carignano, Victor Emmanuel consented to the purchase.
He died not yet twenty years old at the Royal Palace of Genoa, in the night of 22 January 1866.
He left to the city of Genoa, in his will, a significant patrimony of Greek vases, bronzes, ceramics, glassware, and Roman gems, today kept at the Ligurian Museum of Archaeology. Other pieces are preserved at the Gallery of Modern Art of Genoa, which is dedicated to him.
The city of Genoa had named after him a section of the newly constructed seaside ring road (specifically between Piazza Cavour and Corso Aurelio Saffi). Subsequently, in 1944, the Fascist regime, determined to punish the House of Savoy by cancelling even the toponymy dedicated to them, changed the name of the street, choosing in place of Oddone the Mazzinian figure Maurizio Quadrio. The new denomination remains unchanged to this day.
In these images, Oddone (Odone) with his brothers and sister (the eldest being the future King Umberto I) around 1858; a medal struck in Genoa in 1966, attached to a book on the subject.
Above, a rare albumen print dating to around 1864–1865, Oddone with his brother; another rare albumen print by the King’s photographer, one Montabone, preserved at the Istituto Centrale del Risorgimento; another view of the prince, probably in a Genoese photographic studio.
A posthumous book on Oddone (property of the author) from 1867, with a list of the artistic goods left to the city of Genoa.
The statue “Young Beethoven” by Pasquale Romanelli (1812–1887), preserved at the Gallery of Modern Art (G.A.M.) in Genoa–Nervi.
The entrance to the GAM, as well as one of the upper access points to the Parks of Nervi. The union of several structures has led to the creation of the Nervi Museums complex. The Gallery of Modern Art in Villa Saluzzo Serra, the Frugone Collections in Villa Grimaldi Fassio, the Luxoro Museum, and the new headquarters of the Wolfsoniana are the cultural stops along a pleasant walk within the large historic public parks of Genoa.
View of the room from the statue; in the background the beautiful capriccio of the principal monuments of Italy by Petrus Henricus Theodor Tetar van Elven (Amsterdam 1831 – Milan 1908).
… And from the same painting, the statue by Romanelli in its current placement in the eighteenth‑century small room. In the foreground, by Santo Varni, Love Taming Strength, a splendid mid‑nineteenth‑century sculpture.