Sainte Cécile

A Roman martyr who lived in the 3rd century AD, Cecile is the Patron Saint of musicians in Christian tradition. She is celebrated in Monaco on the Sunday following the National Day on 19 November. Musical patronage is known to have been practised in Monaco from the 18th century. The tradition is carried on every year by Monaco City Hall, which hosts all Monegasque musical societies on the Patron Saint’s Day. This statue, sculpted by Ange Zagoni, was officially unveiled in its small alcove during a ceremony held on Saint Cecile’s Day in November 1954, in the presence of Monsignor Barthe, bishop of Monaco. The statuette was donated by Ms Brame-Gastaldi, daughter of Colonel Alban Gastaldi who founded La Lyre Monégasque, one of the Principality’s oldest musical societies. The artist represented the Saint holding a portative organ, one of her attributes.

Ange Zagoni was a sculptor born in 1913. In 1939, he took part in the 14th Salon Monégasque de Peinture, Sculpture et Arts Appliqués. Most of his works were funerary monuments. In November 1954, the sculptor produced the stele that supports the bust of Emmanuel Gonzalès in the Jardins Saint-Martin. In 1965, he made a sculpture in tribute to Jacques Boissy. In 1977, Zagoni sculpted the medallion of the writer and member of the Académie Française, Marcel Pagnol. The medallion is placed on a stone stele in La Turbie, not far from Pagnol’s Monegasque residence.
In 1978, Zagoni took part in the 13th Grand Prix d’Art Contemporain de Monte-Carlo. He created La Fontaine aux Dauphins which until recently stood in the Square Gastaud in the centre of La Condamine, where his studio was located. Some of his sculptures are kept at the Monaco Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology. Ange Zagoni died in 1995.