Monument to the Five Days of Milan

Temporary monuments had been dedicated in 1848 to honor those who died during the recent events of 1848, but these soon were removed by the authorities after the restitution of Hapsburg rule.

In 1862, the local Academy of Fine Arts sponsored a contest for a monument to decorate the town gate at this spot, but this effort failed to lead to construction.

In 1879, two decades after the union of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Italy, with the funds collected from this plan the city of Milan sponsored a competition to erect a memorial to the events of the Cinque Giornate.

The drama culminates in a sort of apotheosis of national redemption, personified in the eagle representing the great idea, and in the lion proudly planted in defense of the barricades, which were the main forum for the battles.

Around the base of the obelisk there is a sort of whirling vortex of objects which in one way or another convey the idea of Revolution, symbolically as we look at them separately, and in a certain tangible, literal sense as we take in the suggestion of vertiginous motion given by the sweeping lines.

Among the various elements in the composition we can make out a bell, evidently in vibration, a lion crawling along with catlike stealthiness, several figures of not perfectly luminous import, and some irregular folds of drapery intended to serve as a modulation or a connecting rhythm from one idea to the other.