The statue, inaugurated in 1916, features an unusually weary-looking horse, which the Milanese reportedly nicknamed “caval de brüm” (roughly meaning “carriage horse”) because of its less than martial appearance; a saying “te pàret el cavall del Missori” (“you look like Missori’s horse”) is also sometimes used in Milan to address someone who looks sad. That same horse was, reportedly, part of a former work by Ripamonti, entitled Waterloo; the original rider was thus Napoleon, on the occasion of his famous defeat. The inscription on the pedestal of the statue, now almost illegible, commemorates Missori saving Garibaldi’s life in Milazzo:
| Italian: Il colonnello Giuseppe Missori, con la solita sua bravura, mi sbarazzò col suo revolver dal mio antagonista di cavalleria nemica. Giuseppe Garibaldi | English: Colonel Giuseppe Missori, clever as usual, with his revolver got rid of my antagonist from the enemy cavalry. |
This is indeed one of the dreariest statues in one of the dreariest places (a parking lot) that I have seen.
Kees van Tilburg
