• Author: Lorenzo Bartolini
• Date: 1836 - 1845
• Collection: SCULPTURE
• Technique: chalk model
• Dimensions: diam. 41 cm.
• Inventory: Inv. Scult. 1914 n. 1193

The funeral monument to the scientist Girolamo Segato was created by Lorenzo Bartolini. He was commissioned in 1836 but the artist’s first design was rejected and it wasn’t until 1844 that he began to think again about the work. The monument was created in marble only after the sculptor’s death and placed in the Cloister of Santa Croce in 1877. In his final design, Bartolini opted for a sarcophagus with the scientist’s face beneath a tondo depicting the Virgin and Child, as in the monumental funeral sculpture of the Renaissance.

The plaster figure in the Galleria dell’Accademia is a portrait of the deceased that adorns the sarcophagus, set in a circular medallion. The invention of hair in the form of snakes is striking, suggesting an immediate connection with the mythological figure of Medusa. Indeed, Girolamo Segato had perfected an extraordinary system of embalming corpses that could ‘petrify’ organic tissues, just as the Gorgon’s gaze petrified enemies.