Giacomo Casa (Conegliano, 1827 – Rome, 1887), Allegory of Venice

Giacomo Casa (Conegliano, 1827 – Rome, 1887)

Allegory of Venice

Oil on canvas, 50,5 x 40 cm

With frame 65,5 x 53,5 cm

The Unification of Italy and its historical and political path fueled the production of specific works of art, which evoke war scenes, political and popular episodes, but also complex allegorical representations. Typical of this illustrative trend is the painting in question, attributed to Giacomo Casa (1827-1887) given the stylistic and compositional consonances with his typical pictorial production, as well as for the direct relationship, given the iconographic scheme and the elegant decorative figure, with the allegorical work depicting Republican Venice resurrected to freedom and art, with the tricolour flag, executed in 1848 by Casa and now preserved at the Museum of the Risorgimento and Resistance in Vicenza.

A painting with a strong patriotic meaning, it features a female figure in the centre, to be identified with the Allegory of Venice: the setting in a rural landscape is different from the port and marine one found in the Vicenza painting but would indicate the Venetian power that extended into the Veneto and Lombard hinterland during the history of the maritime republic; furthermore, the presence of the lion should be interpreted as a clear reference to the main symbol of the lagoon city, represented together with the usual attributes of the weapons, depicted at its feet and with the laurel wreaths next to it, which refer to military glories. A further patriotic reference is the depiction of the woman with her breasts uncovered, thus alluding to her role as Mother, while the combination of the colours of the dress and the drape resting on the broken column refer to the Tricolour, the national flag adopted since 1797 with the Cispadane Republic until it became one of the most important symbols of the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy. The warrior holds an oak branch in her right hand, a reference to the military value that the nation is ready to employ for its redemption, while the broken column recalls those who fell for their country. In the background, a typical Venetian landscape unfolds, which recalls the lagoon tradition in the sfumato and in the clear and smoky skies of Bellini and Titian, exhibiting a notable formal elegance and a refined chromatic palette of sixteenth-century Venetian taste. The definition of this subject, which interprets the allegorical figure of Venice in a Risorgimento key, occurred starting from the riots of 1848, in which the city had the brief but intense experience of the Republic of San Marco, formed by Daniele Manin as an anti-Austrian function and later approached annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia, which then took place after the Third War of Independence with the plebiscite of 1866. In these years Casa produced lithographs and engravings, now preserved at the Institute for the History of the Italian Risorgimento in Rome, in order to praise the heroes and patriotic martyrs who fought to obtain independence from the Habsburgs and annexation to the Savoy kingdom, thus managing to rework the Venetian symbols in a perspective of patriotism and fusion with the future Kingdom of Italy.

His youthful experiences, both artistic and otherwise, contributed to consolidating Casa's ideas: as a painter he trained at the Academy of Venice, Giacomo Casa was a student of Molmenti, who contributed to the development of his rare talent and his strong personality. At the age of twenty he took part in the Venetian revolutionary movements between 1848 and 1850. He visited Padua, Naples, Rome, Pompeii, Catania and had experiences abroad, in the East, in Paris and London, where he stayed for several years. In 1883, having returned permanently to Italy, he settled in Rome.

His creations were immediately appreciated, as demonstrated by his participation in numerous exhibitions: after the riots of '48 he took part in the Venetian exhibitions, in 1861 he presented Episode of the Betrothed while in 1862 he proposed the Universal Flood and The Beneficence. At the First Italian Exhibition in Florence in 1861 he exhibited his most famous work: Michelangelo directing the fortification works in Florence.

Casa was also a skilled and sought-after fresco painter; we remember his works carried out during the 50s in Venice alongside L. Cadorin (Caffè delle Nazioni, 1857; Caffè Florian, 1858; Caffè Quadri, 1859; Palazzina Foscari; Palazzina Gattei Nardi, 1864; interventions in the Royal Palace and in Palazzo Papadopoli in Santa Marina). In 1884 he was entrusted with the decoration of the Verdi theatre in Padua, where he intervened on the ceilings of various rooms with allegorical representations. He worked at the church of the Filippini in Chioggia; he was active not only for the Venetian churches of San Moisè and Santa Maria Formosa, but also for the Apollonian rooms of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

In his easel painting he also dealt with orientalist themes which contributed to his fame (Oriental Market, 1885, Venice, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Ca' Pesaro). His works, mostly genre paintings and historical subjects, for example Venice welcomes Vittorio Emanuele II, are preserved in the Museums of Udine, Padua, Bassano and the Museum of Modern Art in Venice.