Mascherini Tomb

On a high stone base, in which the Mascherini family surname is engraved in capital letters, stands the imposing bronze sculpture of St. Francis, signed M. Mascherini at the base and with the monogram 'M'. As Cesare Sofianopulo recalled in 1964, the saint is "admirably composed", with "his arms outstretched, his beautiful hands with the stigmata raised towards the sky, almost as if he wanted to embrace all God's creatures".
There are several versions of this bronze, in Antwerp, Ferrara and Gemona, and a preparatory sketch, whose location is unknown.
Exhibited for the first time in Trieste in 1956, this work earned the sculptor a gold medal at the 4th Biennale of Sacred Art in Novara in 1959.
The figure, tapered and almost abstract, typical of the stylised features of the 1950s, was chosen for the family tomb, erected in memory of his wife and model Nera Micheli, who died in 1962.
The funerary monument, as we see it now, is the result of the collaboration between the architect Aldo Cervi and the sculptor Mascherini, as testified by the Project, for the construction of a funerary monument to be erected on the second-class tomb, no. 196 - Section XVI – Sant’Anna Cemetery, in the name of Professor Marcello Mascherini , dated 1965, housed in the general archives of Trieste City Council and signed jointly by the two artists.
It was Mascherini himself who explained the deeper meaning of his St. Francis: 'it is very strange, but in the long days of inactivity I thought again about religion and understood that many of its human and simple truths are indispensable for life and creation. The figure that restored my faith was St Francis [...]. In his humble and most profound Laude, St Francis created God for the second time".