MONUMENT TO GIROLAMO FABRIZI

THE HISTORY

Girolamo Fabrizio (1533-1519) was born in Acquapendente, probably in 1533, from a family belonging to the Aquesian nobility; he completed medical studies that soon led him to teaching, so much so that, from 1563 to 1613, he established himself as a professor of anatomy and surgery at his studio in Padua. A great merit of him is undoubtedly that of having created a school of renowned Doctors and Anatomists and above all a corpus of works that denote his intuitive abilities in the field of medicine, for example the study of human and comparative, physiological anatomy and embryological. For this very important personality, the Municipality of Acquapendente promoted the initiative to erect a monument as a tribute to the talented Aquesian doctor, assigning the design and construction to the Sienese sculptor Tito Sarrocchi, already in the same years engaged in the construction of other sepulchral and cemetery monuments. , as well as busts. In 1882, the Committee for the erection of the monument was formed and the news of the initiative was spread to other Italian municipalities, institutes, bodies and universities. Despite another sculptor, Cesare Zocchi, proposed to build the monument, the task was entrusted to Sarrocchi in May 1884. He undertook to produce the sketch within the year and to complete the realization by 1887. L he inauguration of the monument took place on 29 August 1888 in the presence of public figures in a setting of a real patriotic celebration, between the intonation of the choir of a hymn and festoons and lights in the square.

DESCRIPTION

The sculptor Tito Sarrocchi conceived the statue with extreme meticulousness and with the aim of creating the best conditions for the usability of the monument for the public. Having no references, in addition to an ancient and inaccurate portrait, Sarrocchi decided to resume the physiognomy of his friend Giuseppe Porri, a cultured Sienese bookseller-publisher who gave his city an interesting collection of books and antique prints. In the same library since 1889 is kept the marble bust of Porri, made by the Sienese sculptor. The two faces differ mainly in the cut of the beard, which in Fabrizio reflects the fashion of the time, a real status symbol for nobles and intellectuals.

Girolamo Fabrizio is shown with his head slightly tilted forward, almost caught in the act of explaining his discoveries with confidence and calm, he has a good-natured and at the same time severe aspect, in one hand he “wields the anatomical knife” and with the other it rests on a seventeenth-century style pedestal on which two of his books are placed.

The attention to the description of the variously decorated drapery and to the position of the statue itself, which stands on a decorated base and stylistically homogeneous to the statue itself, denotes the taste for the descriptive sculptural details of Sarrocchi, a refined Sienese artist who gave Acquapendente an extraordinary monument beauty and artistic refinement.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

AA.VV., Acquapendente e il suo territorio. Regione Lazio, Assessorato alla Cultura, Spettacolo, Sport e Turismo. Direzione regionale cultura, sport e turismo, area valorizzazione del territorio e del patrimonio culturale. Avellino 2004;

Biondi P., Le origini del comune di Acquapendente e la Madonna del Fiore, Acquapendente 1966;

Chiovelli R. (a cura di), Girolamo Fabrizio. Il monumento d Tito Sarrocchi ad Acquapendente, Acquapendente – Centro Visite Riserva Naturale Monte Rufeno, 1988;

Cozza G., Siena e Tito Sarrocchi scultore, Stanze, Orvieto, 1892;

Fossati Pier Maria, Girolamo Fabrizi da Acquapendente. Medico e anatomista. La vita e le opere., Acquapendente – Torre Julia de Jacopo, 1988;

Lise G., Acquapendente. Storia. Arte. Figure. Tradizioni, Acquapendente 1971;

Acquapendente Artecittà – Monumento a Girolamo Fabrizio.