THE GIANT

The Jupiter executed for Giovanni Andrea in 1566 by Marcello Sparzo, a stucco-worker from Urbino, was of the genre known as “colossi”, very fashionable in the sixteenth century, not least as result of the ancient pieces being discovered in excavations. The imposing stucco figure, almost eight metres high, was based on classical models (a possible source of inspiration was the ‘Commodus portrayed as Hercules’ found in 1507 in Rome, in the Campo de’Fiori.

“The great Roldano”, the dog given by Philip II of Spain to Giovanni Andrea, was buried at the feet of the colossus in 1605.

The tomb was closed with a stone (still surviving, fixed to a retaining wall in via Pagano Doria), the inscription on which praised the exceptional qualities of the animal buried “next to the great Jupiter”.

In 1939, Sparzo’s statue, very well known to the people as the “Giant”, but by then very dilapidated and surrounded by chaotic urban development, was destroyed.