Wedding of Hercules and Hebe on Olympus

In 1907 Adele Zagari, daughter of sculptor and architect from Messina, Saro Zagari, donated to the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome "two maquettes of the bas-reliefs made by the artist in 1847 for the façade of the theatre of Saint Elizabeth (now Vittorio Emanuele) of Messina. She thus intended to honour the memory of her father and fulfil the statutory rules requiring every new academician to leave to the institution "a few examples of his ability”. Zagari was accepted among the academicians of merit in 1868. He was an accomplished artist: after an initial training in architecture in Messina, he was able to move to Rome thanks to the patronage of his municipality and had devoted himself to sculpture at the studio of Pietro Tenerani. The apprenticeship is also demonstrated by the almost total imitation of his teacher’s Flora in the allegoric figure of the city of Messina, part of the monumental group Time unveiling Truth made by Zagari to crown the pediment of the theatre in Sicily. The bas-reliefs on view, which are part of the exterior decoration of the façade of the theatre Vittorio Emanuele, had been judged favourably by the Roman academy in 1865, as stated in the correspondence between the mayor of Messina and the president of the institution. (M. M.)