Page 69 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - nr 29
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for three years before being placed
in the square of the same name in
front of the National Archaeological
Museum. The choice of the model for
the work was not easy since there was
no iconographic reference and finally
it fell on the representation of the poet
who contemplates his homeland from
exile and not that of the love poet or the
carefree one of his early years in Rome.
Ettore Ferrari then imagined Ovid to
Tomi, portrayed in a meditative and
melancholy attitude, in the place of his
relegatio, venting his pain by writing
the Tristias. The choice of the position
is debated for a long time and the
possibility of placing it on the sea was
also proposed, scanning the horizon of
the Pontus Euxinus waiting for the ship
bearing the news of forgiveness and the
hope of returning to Rome, but finally
Indipendence Square was chosen, since
1947 the current Piața Ovidiu. The
statue of Sulmona instead dates back
to 1925 and was placed in Piazza XX
Settembre. Initially the material chosen
was marble to be able to add variations
compared to the bronze of Constance a
few years earlier, but above all because
the classical Roman statue had always
been made of marble. However, due
to the long construction times, they
returned to the bronze solution that is
still present in the town. It is therefore
a copy of the original by Costanza
with a small difference: the presence
of the stylus. The one in Constance
lost it between 1916 and 1922 when
piedistallo durante la prima the statue was knocked down from its
pedestal during the First World War by
Guerra Mondiale ad opera the Bulgarian army which intended
dell’esercito bulgaro che to steal it as war booty. Instead, it was
intendeva trafugarla come rescued and returned to its pedestal by
bottino di guerra. Fu invece the allies of the German army.
salvata e ricollocata sul
suo piedistallo dagli alleati Sulmona
dell’esercito tedesco. La statua
di Sulmona fu inaugurata il 30
di aprile 1925 dal Re d’Italia
in persona, ma in assenza
dello scultore Ettore Ferrari
nonostante i vari inviti della
città. Singolare e toccante
vicenda quella di Ovidio che ha
saputo conquistare con i suoi
versi tanto il popolo italiano
quanto quello romeno, presso il
quale gode di altrettanta fama e
prestigio e ricorda con orgoglio
alla popolazione del paese
balcanico la sua singolare sorte
di enclave latina in una terra
tanto lontana da Roma.
Mediterraneo e dintorni - 67
