Modeled 1827-1856, likely before 1837; cast in the second half of the nineteenth century

Filippo Buonarroti

French, 1788 - 1856

The sculptor David d’Angers was active in his revolutionary politics—he fought against the Royalists in the French Revolution of 1830 and, after the Revolution of 1848, was even briefly elected mayor of a Paris district. In this medal he depicts the Italian writer and proto-socialist Filippo Buonarroti (1761–1837). A participant in the Babeuf Conspiracy, Buonarroti sought to overthrow the French Directory, the constitutional government created after the Reign of Terror, and to create a utopian egalitarian republic in which property would be abolished. David sculpted this medal as part of his "Gallerie des Contemporains," a project begun in 1827 to immortalize in bronze the great figures of his age. He worked on this project until his death, producing over five hundred medals, which together present a dynamic cross-section of intellectual life in Paris during the first half of the 1800s.