Public Statues in Venice

"In no other state have we so little about personal details of its great men:
Venice demanded and secured the effacement of the individual..." Horatio Brown

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Throughout the long and illustrious history of the Republic of Venice, only one individual was ever honoured with a public statue. The Most Serene Republic distrusted individuals and did all in its power to restrain and limit their power. Given what often happened in other city-states, she had good reason to be vigilant. In the introduction to his magisterial history of Venice, John Julius Norwich notes “the instinctive horror, amounting at times to a phobia, shown by the Republic to the faintest suggestion of the cult of personality.”

The figure whom the Republic feted was neither a politician nor a saint; he wasn’t even Venetian. Bartolomeo Colleoni (1400-75) was a condottiere (mercenary) from Bergamo and his statue was erected in 1495. Colleoni, as befitting a leader of men, is depicted in horseback. The equestrian statue is the work of Andrea del Verrocchio and Alessandro Leopardi. It is considered to be one of the finest statues (some would say the finest) of its kind. 

Almost four hundred years would pass before another figure was given such an honour. In 1875 Venice finally fêted one of its own sons, the hero of the Republic of San Marco (1848-9), Daniele Manin (1804-57). With a sash across his chest and his hand thrust into his greatcoat, Manin looks every bit a leader and a statesman. There is no inscription, only the single word, Manin. The city-fathers were keen to erect the statue close to the house in which Manin lived during the insurrection and so the very ancient church of San Paternian (one of the oldest in Venice) was duly razed to the ground to make room. A plaque marks the spot where the church stood and another plaque on the wall across the canal identifies Manin’s home. 

A few years later, in a nearby campo, a statue was erected to Nicolò Tommaseo (1802-74), journalist, linguist and the editor of all eight volumes of the Dizionario della Lingua Italiana. However, Tommaseo was honoured here for the role he had played during the short-lived Republic of San Marco (1848/9). The statue is known locally, for obvious reasons, as El Cagalibri (The book-shitter)!

The next figure to be publicly honoured with a statue came from the world of literature. In 1883 a statue of the Venetian playwright, Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), was erected in Campo San Bartolomeo. The great dramatist, who wrote some of Italy's most famous best-loved plays, is portrayed as a jaunty character in frock coat and tricorn hat. 

No city in Italy would be complete without statues to two of the nation’s founding fathers, Giuseppe Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II. The statue to Garibaldi stands in the Giardini Pubblici, or Public Gardens, which lie on the east side of the city. Dispensing with the conventional format of a marble plinth, the sculptor has placed the statue on top of an outcrop of natural rock. The image has been given a Venetian twist with the addition of the lion. 

The statue to Victor Emmanuel II, who had the honour of being the first king of the United Kingdom of Italy, enjoys a more prominent place on the Riva degli Schiavoni. The king is portrayed on horseback atop a high plinth. 

The final figure to be honoured in the 19th century was Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623). Sarpi was a Servite friar, scientist and scholar, but he is best known for the pivotal role he played in a colossal conflict between Pope Paul V and the Venetian Republic, which resulted in Venice being excommunicated (1606). ​

Bartolomeo Colleoni

Daniele Manin by Luigi Borro, 1875

Nicolò Tommaseo by Francesco Barzaghi, 1882

Carlo Goldoni by Antonio dal Zotto, 1883

Giuseppe Garibaldi by Augusto Benvenuti, 1885

King Vittorio Emanuele II by Ettore Ferrari, 1887

Paolo Sarpi by Emilio Marsili, 1892