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The portrait of Francesco Morosini in the Armoury of the Palazzo Ducale was commissioned by the Senate in 1687.
During the seventeenth century, funerary or commemorative marble busts of distinguished persons were produced continuously. Such portraits were included in grandiose monuments or formed part of more modest privately commissioned memorials. In 1687-88 the genre was enriched with an example in bronze by Filippo Parodi of Francesco Morosini as admiral. It stands on a marble pedestal, also by Parodi, with trophies and artifacts of war and an inscription which records that the portrait had been commissioned by the Senate while Morosini was still alive to express the public gratitude for his victories over the Turks.
The bust reveals Parodi's abilities in bronze sculpture. He succeeded in finding a particularly felicitous compositional solution in the connection between the bronze of the bust and the marble of the pedestal.
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