artistic eye. Post First World War Following the First World War Romano dedicated himself wholeheartedly to a career in sculpture. Romano’s style underwent a transformative period as the themes of his work became increasingly influenced by the setting in which he found himself. Eva - Eve (1918) with her soft lines is still reminiscent of Rodin. However, La Signora Giglioli – Mrs. Giglioli (1922) looks more to the Italian Avant-Garde movement as does Leda con il Cigno - Leda and the Swan (1923). Mario Tinti suggested that Romano's military duties significantly impacted his style. He writes that Romano "began to strip his art of every psychological, dynamic, and colourist influence that he had unconsciously derived from Rodin - all his efforts from now on were directed towards making his art more severe, and more religious, more architectural and absolute - in a word, more 'Italian' ".The validity of these words lies in the abundance of Romano's works linked to Italian Nationalism and Classicism, but his work continued to display traces of his pre-war influences. The first of many large commissions to come his way was the Equestrian statue of General Botha for his Memorial (1928), which stands outside the parliament in Cape Town, originally a commission to his father Raffaello Romanelli which he took over upon his death. After World War II, Romano's links with South Africa also gave his workshop a role in the creation of the historical friezes for the Voortrekker Monument in South Africa. The design was created by four South African sculptors Hennie Potgieter, Laurika Postma, Frikkie Kruger and Peter Kirchhoff who spent five years creating plaster panels. These panels were sent to Florence where Romanelli had a large studio with machinery and technical equipment. Romano directed 50 chisellers replicating the plaster designs in Quercetta marble. The Two Boxers Pugile in Combattimento – The Fighting Boxer (1926) bought by Minister Augusto Turati for the Foro Italico stadium in Rome and shown at the "Mostra del Novecento" in 1929 bears witness to Romano's style of the post war period. From the plaster version preserved at Galleria Romanelli, the masculine lines accompanied by finer details gives the sculpture its strong impact. The socks, the livery, the gloves and the concentration on the facial expression and the action stance of the athlete all reveal a style which leans towards the pursuit of verisimilitude. Following on from this theme is