19th Century, Allegory Of Italy

19th century
Allegory of Italy
Oil on canvas 64 x 40
With frame, cm 73 x 50
During the nineteenth century the fervent Italian cultural climate dominated by the aspiration to an Italy finally united meant that many Italian painters produced allegories, in which the political message emerged clear in terms of propaganda and popular synthesis of higher ideological content. The canvas in question is, in fact, the spokesman of these instances, proposing an allegory of Italy, "people of poets, artists, heroes, saints, thinkers, scientists", and the Italian Risorgimento. 
The canvas is of rare wonder not only for the uniqueness and richness of the iconography represented, but also for character, solemnity, fluidity of color, drapery and for crudeness of language. Italy, hieratic and majestic, masters the scene in the center: positioned on a cloud dressed in a white tunic and wrapped in a red cloak, it holds a sceptre with its right hand, while the head is surrounded by the crown typical of the ancient representations of Italy Turrita. The pathos is charged by the enveloping brushstroke, the compositional dynamism and the warm light that envelops the scene and that lingers with intensity on the face. It is flanked by two winged putti that, together with the half-reclining figures at the bottom can be a symbol of fertility and the gifts that the Italian land gives to its 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 well recognizable to the public of the time. From left to right can be identified, in fact, respectively: Sandro Botticelli; Dante Alighieri, the Supreme Poet as well as "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 hat and the shield with the lion, while on the left is proposed Napoleon’s France, Imagined by the artist as a woman with long hair loose surrounded by a band with the monogram "N" framed by a wreath of bay leaves: Napoleon was, in fact, the one who awakened in many places in Italy the desire for independence. Finally, below, there are two elders crowned with laurel, variously identified or with the two famous poets of antiquity Homer, caught in the act of holding the stick and Hesiod, both incarnation of the ancient world or as personifications of the river Tiber and Arno, as they would seem to suggest also the waters represented. 
The object is in good condition
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