The image captures the climate of expectation and patriotic exaltation around the inauguration of the Monument to the Thousand. The painting, by Plinio Nomellini, depicts the moment in which the large red cloth that covered Baroni’s monumental work was removed and the heroic figure unveiled, seeming to rise once again.

The painter Antonio Discovolo recounts the creation of this small painting, describing Nomellini who, at the very moment in which Gabriele d'Annunzio delivered his speech, squeezed onto the palette some colours extracted from a box, dipped his fingers and began to trace red, blue and yellow stains on a tablet, each time wiping his finger on the lining of the jacket of the painter Eugenio Olivari, who repeatedly tried to get him to use a handkerchief.

Further testimonies of the day are offered by the extensive photographic material recording the occasion.