Statue of Scipione Maffei

Scipione Maffei, the subject of the statue, spent his life mainly in Verona, where he was born and died (1st June 1675 - 12th February 1755). He was a historian, a playwright and an intellectual. He studied in the Jesuit colleges of Parma and Rome, then he served in the Bavarian Army. During his stay in Rome, he was in contact with important intellectual circles which influenced his classical education. After the Donauwörthbattle (1705), he devoted himself to literary activities: many of his works were published and he revamped the Italian theatre upon the requisite of the Enlightening Catholicism. His most important work is “Verona Illustrata” but his masterpiece, known all over Europe, was the tragedy “Merope”.

The statue, built in 1756, was made by Giovanni Angelo Finali: born in Valsolda, near the city of Como, in 1709, he moved to Vienna after a period spent in Dresda, where he attended the Academy of Arts. The statue is in mediocre condition and it could benefit from some restoration work . Despite being placed on an arch in piazza dei Signori, the monument is poorly promoted because it is obscured by the attention given to other monuments in the same square and doesn’t benefit from artificial lighting.