The composition scheme which the sculptor Benetti has used for this tomb – a pyramid with a central door, towards which an old woman is heading, guided by a young woman – is inspired by Canova’s scheme for Maria Christina of Austria’s tomb, even if in a more simplified way and small-scale. The deceased and the pretty girl – maybe a descendant of hers but most probably a symbolic figure – are portrayed according to the realist rules; the same goes for the deceased’s portrait, which is above the pyramid’s entrance, in an oval window surrounded by a garland. The sculptor Benetti has placed a winged figure to the right of the entrance, maybe the mourning’s Christian angel or the classical Genie of the Pain. Despite the religious or symbolic character of this figure, the sculptor Benetti wanted to represent also its natural concreteness by highlighting its psychological marks and letting it share on the delicate intimist mood that fills the whole monument.
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