Lara's Page

This sculpture takes its inspiration from the poem "Lara" by Lord Byron, and was presented at the Brera Exhibition in 1873. The marble statue—the museum has the original plaster model of this piece—stirred heated debate among critics. It was admired by the academic Domenico Induno, and harshly criticized by Mongeri: "The first time we saw it, it seemed to have been transported in one of those disasters of the early geological ages, in which granite, metal, and gaseous substances are mixed in a boiled state." Even the well-known writer and architect Camillo Boito had a negative opinion of the sculpture; he considered the young artist's technique to be artificial, "fiercely chiseled in appearance but weighty in substance and no less disingenuous." His sculptural style did not impress him, even though he approximated the pictorial language of Tranquillo Cremona. "We like Cremona. Grandi, we do not."