This preliminary model for the monumental fountain made for the 1898 National Exhibition in Turin's Valentino Park documents the apex of Cometti's plastic production. A pupil and collaborator of Leonardo Bistolfi, he later became a leading figure in the production of furniture, imposing his own personal version of the Art Nouveau style and, later, of the internationally renowned Art Deco taste. Plaster cast sketch of a pyramid composition formed by female figures.

The work, which was part of a triptych comprising two other paintings, The Park and the Park Fountain, was made to commemorate the expansion and restructuring of the Manifattura Arte della Ceramica di Fontebuoni, to whose original name was added that of the locality to which, at the behest of the new partner Count Giustiniani, the entire complex was transferred. However, not agreeing with the commercial direction that Giustiniani intended to give to production, Chini abandoned the company as early as 1904, which was forced to close three years later. Pictured in the foreground, against the backdrop of an industrial landscape, are Chini's wife Elvira, the artist himself with palette in hand, his cousin Chino Chini and an unidentified figure.

Andrea Gastaldi, who is listed in the museum's historical inventories as the author of the painting, is probably the young man remembered by Emanuele Celesia in his History of the University of Genoa for a rather eventful episode: on 21 June 1820, the feast day of St. Louis, a brawl broke out in the University church between students and those of the Royal College, during which Gastaldi and Mazzini were arrested. However, the protest of the other students was so strong that the directors of the Royal College were forced to request the release of the two, who were then triumphantly escorted to their homes. From that moment on, Mazzini became a figure of reference for his companions, who admired him deeply. He gathered around him the most lively, courageous and idealistic young people, beginning a journey of commitment to freedom that he would pursue without ever backing down. In portraying the exile who, against the backdrop of a typically Genoese landscape (the hills and forts), leaves his homeland, the author depicts the events of his friend, who was forced into exile in 1831, which lasted his entire life. The painting depicts Giuseppe Mazzini on his way into exile, looking back and bidding farewell to Italy.

Presented in 1920 at Canegallo's solo exhibitions at the Teatro Argentina in Rome and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa with the caption in the catalogue: "Analysis of collective life rendered in cerebral vibrations. Human faces expressing oscillations of the collective mood', the painting was later exhibited in 1925 at the prestigious Galerie La Boëtie in Paris, where Boccioni had held a major exhibition of his sculptures in 1913. The transcription of emotions and psychic manifestations, resolved in Canegallo's works of this period through undulating rhythms and dynamic radial tracings, seemingly expanding beyond the confines of the frame, finds an evocative depiction in the painting 'The Crowd': in a hallucinated and visionary scenario - accentuated by the radial expansion, over the entire pictorial surface, of force lines inspired by the tracings of psychic energy fields - all the dismay aroused by the sense of alienation provoked by the disturbing and obscure metropolitan atmospheres is revealed. In the concise breakdown of the work, different expressions emerge from the anonymous depiction of the crowd, crystallised in the anguished fixity of gazes, of calm, pleasure, pain and hatred.

After his formative years in Turin, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, in 1902 Cominetti moved with his brother Gian Maria to Genoa, where he frequented Plinio Nomellini and established himself as one of the main interpreters of the emerging Symbolist tendencies. In 1909, the year of his participation in the Salon d'Automne, he moved with his brother to Paris and came into contact with avant-garde circles. His closeness to Futurism dates back to this period, although his adhesion to the movement was rejected by Umberto Boccioni. Oil on canvas depicting three figures in a playful attitude; the two figures in the foreground hold a badminton racket in their right hand.

n the early days of 1872 Mazzini, feeling the end approaching, felt a strong desire to return to Italy. He would have liked to go to Genoa, where one of his sisters, Antonietta Massuccone, was still living, but it was not possible due to some moral qualms put forward by her. Mazzini therefore went to Pisa, where he died on 10 March 1872 surrounded by a few faithful friends and wrapped in the famous “shawl” that had already been used by Carlo Cattaneo in his last moments. This is testified by photographs and paintings, including ours, in which, however, the pattern of the blanket is slightly modified and enlarged compared to the original. Portrait of Giuseppe Mazzini on his deathbed, with his eyes closed and a brown checkered blanket over his chest.

The shawl is made of black and white checked wool, with fringes and commemorative embroidery on one side resulting from the folding. It wrapped Carlo Cattaneo, who died in 1869, and then Giuseppe Mazzini during his illness and death. The object bears an embroidered inscription telling its story: “This cloth, which belonged to CARLO CATTANEO and wrapped his body on 6 February 1869, was cherished as a memento by GIUSEPPE MAZZINI, who covered himself with it when he was ill and died on 10 March 1872. AG. BERTANI”. Giuseppe Mazzini's shawl is a plaid – or more precisely a maud, a blanket made of raw wool in two natural colours – used as a garment and, until his last moments, by Carlo Cattaneo. It was kept by Mazzini and used by him during his illness until his death, then passed on to Agostino Bertani and finally used to cover Maurizio Quadrio at his death. This is why it is an object of great symbolic and historical value, having passed through the hands of four protagonists of the Italian Risorgimento: an artefact that began as an everyday object and then became a memento, a relic, and finally a relic.

Seal with wooden handle and metal tip engraved with the letter ‘M’. In a small exhibition area inside the apartment where the Mazzini family lived and where Giuseppe was born, now home to the Mazzini Institute - Museum of the Risorgimento in Genoa, the young man's study has been reconstructed, featuring some of the tools he used for writing, some of which are on display here. From the black leather-covered document holder, engraved with the name Joseph on the flap, to the portable box with pens and inkwell, the case with small round glasses, and the cipher for secret communication. In addition to the precious notebooks from his youth, written in his unmistakable tiny handwriting on thin tissue paper (the Zibaldoni), there is also a double metal seal engraved with the initial “M” on one side and Giuseppe's nickname, 'Pippo', as he was affectionately called by family and friends.
These are particularly significant relics because they reveal the enormous importance that writing and letters had in Mazzini's life, fundamental elements for his political and revolutionary activity. Through his frequent, tireless letters, he was able to guide the Italian Risorgimento movements from afar, keeping his teachings alive. These letters also show us the man behind the thinker and are invaluable in reconstructing the memory of a complex hero, capable of great emotional outbursts and marked by a profound humanity.

The painting depicts a pregnant woman in a factory while she is assembling a bullet with a blowtorch.

White waistcoat decorated with red and green lines, tricolour stripes. Dress belonging to Giuseppe Mazzini.