Verdi Square Sawyer and built in 1926–28. The 72nd Street New York City Subway station () lies under the square. The Verdi Square entrance to the station in the square is one of only three remaining head houses on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. In the center of Verdi Square stands a monument to the opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, erected in 1906. A statue of him by Pasquale Civiletti (1858–1952) stands at the top of it and statues of four of his most famous characters (Falstaff on the west side of the statue, Leonora of "La forza del destino" on the south
Giuseppe Verdi in 1871 "I won't say [Verdi] is an atheist, but he is not much of a believer." Rosselli comments that in the Requiem "The prospect of Hell appears to rule...[the Requiem] is troubled to the end," and offers little consolation. "See also List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi and individual articles on the works." The writer Friedrich Schiller (four of whose plays were adapted as operas by Verdi) distinguished two types of artist in his 1795 essay "On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry". The philosopher Isaiah Berlin ranked Verdi in the 'naïve' category—"They are not...self-conscious. They do not...stand aside to contemplate