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Colombo giovinetto

The First Inspiration of the Boy Columbus

"Colombo giovinetto" or "The First Inspiration of the Boy Columbus"

Columbus as a charming child at play: he is sitting on a mooring-post upon a pier, against which the waves are breaking; he is in deep meditation and holds a book in his hand.

The statue has been ordered to Giulio Monteverde by Cap. d'Albertis for his castle in Genoa. Actually, d'Albertis's nephew Filippo was the model for Columbus.
The sculpture was made in Rome in 1870, and won a gold medal at an exhibition at Parma, Italy. The original statue stands in the loggia in d'Albertis castle, the statue looks exactly in the direction of San Salvador, i.e. south-south west.

Bistagno (Italy),
Boston,
Parma,
Göteborg,
St. Petersburg, and
Vancouver (BC).

Monteverdi carved shortly before his death in 1910 another statue of Columbus as a boy, of which a copy is in the Christopher Columbus High School in New York.

Sculptor

Giulio Monteverde (Bistagno 1837 - Roma 1917), Italian sculptor (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

Stefano Rizzi, Lo scultore di "Colombo giovinetto": A 150 anni dalle nascita di Giulio Monteverde, in Columbus '92, vol. 4, no. 1 [24] (Genova, 1988). Photocopy sent to me by Alex Borgogno.

Exact Location Unknown

Item Code: se001; Added: 11 August 2003

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