Who’s Afraid of a Statue? In Padua, northern Italy, a surreal debate has erupted over whether the famed Prato della Valle, Italy’s largest piazza, with its 78 statues of illustrious historical figures, can support a single female figure. Two unoccupied sockets would still be free. Margherita Colonnello and Simone Pillitteri from the Partito Democratico (PD) therefore proposed in the municipal council that a monument be erected to the Venetian scholar Elena Cornaro Piscopia. The world’s first woman with a doctorate lived in the 17th century and meets all the selection criteria for the Presidenza: she is not a saint and is closely linked to the city of Padua, her grave is right on the square. Where is the problem then?
Some are disturbed that a torso of the philosopher can already be seen in the Palazzo Bo of the University of Padua. The headwind is not only directed against them, but also against other proposals such as Chiara Varotari, Sibilla de’ Cetto or Isabella Andreini. Art historian David Tramarin said the New York Times, the piazza is “an expression of the past” and one should not simply change it.
A look at the history of the square shows how little his argument is worth: Napoleon removed ten statues there and replaced eight of them with obelisks, and in 1926 a fountain was added. Apparently, the place was not exactly viewed as an untouchable unicum in the past either. Tramarin’s counter-proposal to create a dedicated space for 78 female statues instead of including a woman is not only absurd, but would finally turn the Prato della Valle into a sole memorial for famous men.
In December, the Mi Riconosci? movement published a census of all female statues in public spaces that are not allegories or saints. The result was that the 200 female figures recorded in Italy, half of them erected after 2000, are mostly young and immaculate, naked or sexualized, depicted as mothers or wives and in the context of victims or care work. 91 percent of the monuments were designed by men. “It’s about publicly discussing where and how women should be represented in the future,” says activist Federica Arcoraci. She advocates a third ring of statues around the fountain, which is said to show women up to the Risorgimento period. Strictly speaking, the piazza can already serve with the bust of an Italian poetess: it hangs at the foot of a man and does not even reach his knees.