Busti del Pincio

Roma Capitale records that the busts were placed from 1849, and the Sovrintendenza's account of the promenade records that the first fifty busts of illustrious men were placed in 1849 at the commission of the republican government. it.wikipedia describes them as beginning as ordinary garden decoration and becoming small monuments to artists, writers and scientists, with a choice of subjects that is at once decorative, pedagogic and celebratory and tied to Risorgimento patriotic values.