Historical Introduction
The work is a perfect example of the monumental funeral Positivism. It was created by Lorenzo Vergnano, sculptor and professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, in the years 1885-1886. The monument is popularly known as part of Turin with the "grave dij rat" for the presence in the lower register of the monument, of ambiguous creatures that vaguely resemble the shape of a rat.
The Pongilione family funeral monument is located in a semiconfined environment, at a shallow architectural niche that faces the arch of the porch ampliation Fourth of Monumental Cemetery of Turin and precisely under the arch n. 25.
The bottom of the enclosure wall is entirely covered with a stone decoration in white Carrara marble made in low relief depicting a choir of angels about to welcome the deceased to heaven, with below the representations of the monuments and infrastructure to which the engineer has devoted himself when he was alive.
At the center of the bas-relief are placed the two sculptural figures of the engineer and that of the angel, and lasted forward, gradually distance themselves from the rest of the composition.
The lower register of the monument, on which rest the two statues, consists of a symbolic reproduction of the sarcophagus in which the engineer was deposed, flanked by the figure of an angel who tends his hands a cloth on which is carved the inscription dedicatory. Upon completion of the decorative of the monument will also identify a series of marble slabs bardiglio Carrara made to coat the under-arch round arch of the niche, etched and carved in low relief with motifs phytomorphic. A small iron railing bordering the architectural environment in which the work is situated. This element is probably made of bronze and has been fashioned with the technique of casting "lost wax." This is divided into three elements connected together and anchored to the walls by the iron clamps.
Restoration
The conservation work on the monument began in 2013 as a summer stage of the degree course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (University of Turin in agreement with the RAC Foundation "La Venaria Reale"). Since July 7, 2015 students of 1st year of PFP1 sector (Manufacture stone and derivatives, architecture decorated surfaces), under the supervision of Professor Lea Ghedin, they have resumed work in the educational building site set up at the Monumental Cemetery of Turin.
The marble monument has a status of especially endangered conservation, also because of the damage it suffered during the Second World War, and has required the design of a complex restoration in different functional phases.
After a first operation carried out in the summer of 2013 in the upper and middle portions of the monument, again as part of the teaching of the degree course, the current site will allow to deepen the already carried out cleaning tests, both with traditional methods with laser technique, and to put in safety, with the application of suitable consolidant, the lower part of the article, which has serious phenomena of delamination.
Next to the construction site on site, it is also running the operation on the metal railing of the same monument, for they are dealing with the students of the fourth year of PFP4 sector (Manufacture of metal, ceramic and glass), directed by teachers Marco Demmelbauer and Alessandro Ferradini. The restoration works are supervised by the Superintendency and the Municipal Buildings Service intervening for the City as owner of the artifact.
Material: Carrara marble and Bardiglio; bronze
High Security: arch. Giuse Scalva, Dr. Maria Rosaria Severino
Owner: City of Turin
Phase I of the construction site: June 2013
Phase II of the construction site: July 2015
Restoration Completion: December 2016