Tabacchi developed this composition during his early maturity in Milan. The marble model was exhibited at Brera in 1866 and the following year at the Paris Exposition Universelle, while its early success is also reflected in its translation into bronze. In addition to the present example, another cast is preserved today in the Galleria Nazionale in Rome. Although both versions are closely related to the artist’s model, they differ in several small details of pose and finish, showing the care with which Tabacchi revisited the composition.

Foscolo is shown seated, lost in thought and melancholy, holding a letter as a young woman bends to embrace him. She is Teresa, the heroine of The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, while Foscolo himself is presented almost as his own literary alter ego. The reference to the Treaty of Campoformio of 1797, which sanctioned the cession of Venice to Austria, broadens the meaning of the scene: personal and romantic grief is intertwined with political and patriotic sorrow, and Teresa thus also assumes the broader significance of an allegory of Italy.