Marochetti received the commission for the statue from Carlo Alberto of Savoy, following a competition, on 5 Oct. 1831.

This initial project was for an elaborate, multi-group composition, including allegories of the rivers of Piedmont, which was dropped. Marochetti subsequently received a new, more limited, commission, for an equestrian statue and two reliefs on 10 September 1836.

Before it was finally erected in Turin, Marochetti's statue was exhibited in the Cour Carré of the Louvre in 1837.

As a reward for the completion of this project, Marochetti was made a Baron of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

This maquette was once in the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna in Turin, but no longer exists. It was illustrated in L.C. Bollea, "Il Monumento di Emanuele Filiberto del Marochetti e la R. Accademia Albertina delle belle arti", Biblioteca della Societa Storica Subalpina, vol.139, Turin, 1933.