Lorenzo Bartolini’s monument to Nikolaj Demidov, an industrialist, collector and philanthropist, was commissioned in 1830 by Anatolij and Pavel Demidov in memory of their deceased father. It was originally intended to be erected in the park of the San Donato villa, inside a mausoleum designed by the architect Giuseppe Martelli. In 1869, it was donated by Pavel Demidov to the City of Florence. Unfinished on the sculptor’s death, it was completed with two bas-reliefs (one of which was based on a drawing by Bartolini) by Pasquale Romanelli and installed in Piazza Demidoff in 1871.

The allegory of Gratitude belongs to the main group of the complex, with the figure of Nikolaj embracing his young son Anatolij and holding the codex with which he bequeaths his property in Tuscany to his son. The young girl on his left, kneeling, places a wreath at Nikolaj’s feet as a sign of gratitude from the Tuscan people, who had benefited from the Russian prince’s generosity.

The composition is completed by four figures in the corners of the quadrangular plinth: The Muse of Festivals, Mercy, The Truth as it revealed to Art, Siberia. The plaster casts of each group (with the exception of the central one) are preserved at the Galleria dell’Accademia.