64th century Allegory of Italy, Oil on canvas 40 x XNUMX

early nineteenth century

Allegory of Italy

Oil on canvas 64 x 40

With frame, 73 x 50 cm

During the nineteenth century, the fervent Italian cultural climate dominated by the aspiration for a finally united Italy meant that many Italian painters produced allegories, in which the political message emerged clearly in terms of propaganda and the popular synthesis of higher ideological contents . The canvas in question becomes, in fact, a spokesperson for these requests, proposing an allegory of Italy, "a people of poets, artists, heroes, saints, thinkers, scientists", and of the Italian Risorgimento. 

The canvas is of rare wonder not only for the singularity and richness of the iconography represented, but also for its character, solemnity, fluidity of color, drapery and crudeness of language. Italy, hieratic and majestic, dominates the center of the scene: positioned on a cloud dressed in a white tunic and wrapped in a red cloak, she holds a scepter in her right hand, while her head is surrounded by the crown typical of ancient depictions of Turrita Italy. The pathos is enhanced by the enveloping brushstroke, the compositional dynamism and the warm light that envelops the scene and lingers with intensity on the face. She is flanked by two winged cherubs who, together with the semi-reclining figures below, can be a symbol of fertility and the gifts that the Italian land gives to her people.

In the background, the column with the Capitoline Wolf is clearly visible, an animal that took care of the two founders Romulus and Remus, becoming a symbol of the foundation of Rome, the eternal city. 

The artist then chooses to represent a procession of characters and allegories that were easily recognizable for the public of the time. In fact, from left to right we can identify respectively: Sandro Botticelli; Dante Alighieri, the Supreme Poet and "prophet of the Unification of Italy"; Leonardo da Vinci; Giuseppe Parini, a man of letters engaged in a civil and moral sense; Vittorio Emanuele II, first king of Italy following the abdication of his father Carlo Alberto in 1848, dressed in military clothes. On the right we find a female figure in which it is possible to recognize the allegory of the Republic of Venice, with the ducal horn, the classic doge's headdress and the shield with the lion, while on the left Napoleon's France is proposed, imagined by the artist like a woman with long loose hair surrounded by a sash with the monogram "N" framed by a wreath of laurel leaves: Napoleon was, in fact, the one who reawakened the desire for independence in many places in Italy. Finally, at the bottom, you can see two elderly people crowned with laurel, variously identified either with the two famous poets of antiquity Homer, caught in the act of holding the staff, and Hesiod, both incarnations of the ancient world or as personifications of the Tiber river and Arno, as the waters depicted would also seem to suggest. 

The object is in good condition

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