This bronze portrait bust of Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) was created by Italian-born sculptor Giovanni Turini (1841-1899). Located in Central Park along the West Drive at 67th Street, the piece was donated by a group of Italian-Americans and unveiled in 1878.
Mazzini was born in Genoa, Italy. Trained as a lawyer, he worked for the unification of Italy during the mid-19th century, organizing uprisings and influencing political opinion even while in exile. Mazzini helped to found the Giovine Italia ("young Italy") movement, which attracted likeminded patriots such as Giuseppe Garibaldi, who is honored with a sculpture by Turini that was installed in Manhattan's Washington Square Park in 1888. It is said that 80,000 people attended Mazzini's funeral in Pisa in 1872.
Two phrases describing Mazzini's philosophy, Dio E Il Populo ("God and the people") and Pensiero Ed Azione ("thought and action"), are inscribed on the granite pedestal. Pensiero Ed Azione is also the name of a publication Mazzini founded in London in 1858. In 1994 the Central Park Conservancy restored and cleaned the Mazzini sculpture.
