Gaetano Gallino, Genoese, exiled as a supporter of Mazzini, met Garibaldi in 1841 in Uruguay and fought under his command in the Italian Legion in Montevideo and, in 1848, on hearing of the revolutionary uprisings, returned with him to Italy. Here, the Hero of Two Worlds is portrayed wearing the legendary red shirt, which he adopted for the first time in 1843 as the uniform of his volunteers of the Italian Legion.

The flag was presented by the women of Naples to Garibaldi and passed by him to the Genoese Carabinieri, on February 15th, 1861 it was entrusted to the Municipality of Genoa. In the following years, at the behest of Garibaldi himself, it was exhibited only in particular patriotic ceremonies, such as at the funeral of Giuseppe Mazzini, which took place in Genoa on March 17th, 1872. Since 1915 the flag, called “dei Mille”, has been preserved in the Museum of the Risorgimento.

The painting is a faithful reconstruction of the departure of Garibaldi and his volunteers from the rock of Quarto.

The artist’s meticulous attention to detail led him to visit the site as well as to make a careful review of the available documents, images and eye witness reports, this also allowed him to accurately depict the physiognomy of the main protagonists, those close to Garibaldi. Garibaldi himself stands out in the uncertain dawn thanks to the glare created by one of the nearby figures lighting a pipe.

Under the influence of the ideas of freedom and equality originating in revolutionary France and brought with them by Napoleon's armies, a popular uprising in Genoa marked the end of the aristocratic regime and the advent of the democratic Ligurian Republic. The painting depicts the episode in Piazza dell’Acquaverde on June 14th, 1797, when Genoese Jacobins raised the flag of freedom and set fire to the “Golden Book”, the register of the Genoese Nobility.

The image captures the climate of expectation and patriotic exaltation around the inauguration of the Monument to the Thousand. The painting, by Plinio Nomellini, depicts the moment in which the large red cloth that covered Baroni’s monumental work was removed and the heroic figure unveiled, seeming to rise once again.

The painter Antonio Discovolo recounts the creation of this small painting, describing Nomellini who, at the very moment in which Gabriele d'Annunzio delivered his speech, squeezed onto the palette some colours extracted from a box, dipped his fingers and began to trace red, blue and yellow stains on a tablet, each time wiping his finger on the lining of the jacket of the painter Eugenio Olivari, who repeatedly tried to get him to use a handkerchief.

Further testimonies of the day are offered by the extensive photographic material recording the occasion.

Poet, writer and soldier, the author of the lyrics of the Italian National Anthem he was the “soul” of the demonstrations in Genoa which, from 1846, aimed at achieving constitutional reforms; he ran to the aid of the Milanese insurgents against the Austrians in March 1848, took part in the 1st War of Independence and died at the age of 21 in 1849, during the defense of the Roman Republic which was besieged by the French.

Marked "Gennaro Fabricatore, Naples, Strada S. Giacomo n. 42, 1821".
In his letters to his mother Mazzini often mentions his musical interests and asks for strings and new pieces of music for his beloved guitar, which he kept with him during the long years of his exile in London. When he left England for the last time in February 1871 he entrusted it to his friend William Shaen, whose daughter Josephine donated it to the Museum in 1933.

In this video the musician Fabrizio Giudice plays the favourite music of the hero. 

Video with interview to M° Josè Scanu.

We would like to thank "Aquila Corde Armoniche" for having generously donated the wetsuit of the guitar strings.

The first signed draft of the Italian National Anthem contained in the poet’s personal notebook. Written in the autumn of 1847 and set to music in Turin by Michele Novaro, it was sung for the first time in public on 10th December 1847 in Genoa, during the solemn procession in memory of the Balilla revolt of 1746. It immediately spread to every part of Italy, expressing the national sentiment of unity.

The artist, devoted friend and favourite painter of the Genoese patriot, painted this portrait from life during Mazzini’s period of exile in London, the goal was to print engravings to be sold to raise funds for the Italian cause. It is the only portrait, before the widespread introduction of photography, which Mazzini considered as being a good likeness and, as such, he sent it to his mother in Genoa.

Loans

Rome, Napoleonic Museum
from 31/03/2011 to 06/06/2011
for the exhibition: "Giuseppe Mazzini e la musica"

In the centre, standing on a canon, Balilla, the eleven-year-old boy who is said to have triggered the anti-Austrian insurrection of 1746, is shown flanked by two other young commoners who contributed to the expulsion of the Austrians: Pittamuli, who managed to take 50 Austrian grenadiers prisoner in Sant'Agata, and Giovanni Carbone, who on 10th December 1746 distinguished himself in the reconquest of the Porta di San Tommaso, the last enemy bulwark