The statue depicts Vittorio Emanuele II, the father of the fatherland as he used to be called. He was named King of Italy in 1861, a country united under a single sovereign for the first time since the sixth century. Local legend has it that in 1892 when the statue was unveiled to the public in the presence of his son, King Umberto I, a collective smirk was noticed on the faces of the assembled crowd as they observed the long feather added to the helmet of the bronze figure. The goal of the sculptor, Cesare Zocchi, was to make the figure appear more elongated since the king was, how to say this, a bit chubby. Despite his physical appearance, Vittorio Emanuele, who died in 1878, was an emblematic monarch who unified the country and made Rome the capital once again.