D1232

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 299; Larghezza: 520

biacca

Maestri del disegno - Genova - 1990

The identification of the artist as Ludovico Carracci and the linking of the drawing to a painting on copper in the National Art Gallery of Ferrara is thanks to M. Newcome Schleier. The painting was originally included, together with that of his cousin Agostino, in the dome of the monumental wooden ciborium of the Certosa di San Cristoforo in Ferrara, completed in 1597. From a stylistic point of view, it is typical of Ludovico Carracci's drawings from the mid-1590s, with their “very fine lines and strong chiaroscuro contrast achieved with white lead highlights, in a context with a marked pictorial effect” (Boccardo 1999, entry no. 3). The manna harvest

D4490

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 248; Larghezza: 485

matita nera-rossa

One of Domenico Piola's most elegant compositions, this unusually shaped design was intended for use in the creation of a fan. Ink sketch with Apollo and Daphne running in the centre. Daphne is turning into a laurel tree thanks to the intervention of her father Peneus. The scene is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses I 548).

1831 - 1833 - XIX

24

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 75; Larghezza: 90

seta

"Giovine Italia" was an insurrectional political association founded by Giuseppe Mazzini in Marseille in 1831. Its goal was to promote the unity and independence of Italy. The flag belonged to Antonio Dodero, a supporte of Mazzini, who took it with him into exile in 1833. It was later donated to the Municipality of Genoa by his nephew in 1901. The flag is notable for displaying the tricolour horizontally rather than vertically. Despite this difference, it reflects Mazzini’s intention to adopt the tricolour as the symbol of future Italy from the very foundation of Giovine Italia. Tricolour flag with horizontal arrangement of colours: red (at the top), white (in the centre), and green (at the bottom). In the centre of the white band, there is an inscription in red capital letters: 'UNIONE, FORZA E LIBERTÀ !!'

105-24068

Unità di misura: UNR

inchiostro-carta

Donated to the Municipality of Genoa in 1906 by Edoardo Cabella, the document attests to the identity of the famous “Balilla”, the boy who, in 1747, with a first stone thrown at the Austrians, sparked the revolt of all his fellow citizens. The text of the manuscript reads as follows: "I, known as Balila, began to throw a stone and they replied, “Let's go forward, my brother,” and I said, “Wait a moment, I'll go and get a stick,” and I took it in my hand and began to shout, “Let's go forward, I won't say anything else, the people know it, God knows it, everyone knows it”. In reality, upon closer examination, it was possible to see that the watermark on the sheet bears a trademark and the date 1832, effectively disproving the content of the document. Handwritten document with G.B. Perasso's personal attestation that he is the famous “Balilla” credited with starting the anti-Austrian revolt of 1747.

GX1993.50

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 237; Larghezza: 110; Profondità: 55

marmo scolpito

This monumental statue by an unknown artist was presumably conceived for a public building in Rome, perhaps for EUR, or for a cinema in the capital.
The sculpture's face bears some resemblance to the female allegory of the radio in the monument to Guglielmo Marconi, created by Arturo Dazzi and placed at the entrance to Michele Busiri Vici's Italian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair: The Radio Carrying the Heart of the World.

GD1993.44.1

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 108; Larghezza: 88

olio su compensato

Futurist painter Alba Giuppone's painting depicts some of the activities that women engaged in during the war years. As was the case during the Great War, women during the conflict performed activities that in peacetime were usually the preserve of men, in addition to the usual occupations traditionally reserved for them. Oil on plywood depicting female figures in a working-class context.

GX1993.215

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 123; Larghezza: 54; Profondità: 27

bronzo

In 1926, the Opera Nazionale Balilla was established, which, under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education, aimed to organise the activities of boys aged eight to fourteen - called Balilla - in extracurricular hours. The name Balilla was derived from the nickname of a boy from Genoa who, according to tradition, threw a stone at some Austrian soldiers on 5 December 1746 and started the victorious insurrection of Genoa against the foreign oppressor. A marble version of this sculpture is preserved in the Frugone Collections in Genoa.
With a strong Michelangelo-inspired style, with references to classicism, but also to 19th-century verism, Galletti's language in these years appears to be marked by the expressive models of 20th-century figurative culture, in accordance with fascist rhetoric. Bronze sculpture of a Balilla, depicted nude in a classical pose, with his left fist on his hip.

GX1993.463

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 105; Larghezza: 84

olio su tela

After a brief youthful phase of interest in music, Matteo Marangoni (Florence 1876 - Pisa 1958) graduated in anthropology from the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences in Florence in 1905. In 1913, he was appointed inspector and later director of the Superintendency of Galleries, Medieval and Modern Museums and Art Objects in Florence; he then held temporary posts as director of the Brera Art Gallery (1920) and the Parma Gallery (1924). In the meantime, he devoted himself to university teaching at the Universities of Pisa and Milan. Specialising in the study of seventeenth-century painting, Marangoni often dedicated himself - favouring direct reading and stylistic and formal recognition of the work (in 1927 his book “How to Look at a Painting” was published) - to the rediscovery of forgotten authors and the critical reinterpretation of some of the leading artists of the time.
The portrait that the Florentine painter Baccio Maria Bacci dedicated to Marangoni reveals, in the details of the scene and the art historian's relaxed pose, the intimate atmosphere of their friendship and the intensity of the intellectual relationship that bound them together. In fact, the painting is set in a crucial phase of Bacci's pictorial experience that, after a significant and intense period of Futurist experimentation, thanks also to Marangoni's lesson, he returned to embrace a figuration of classical matrix, thus anticipating his later adhesion to Novecento pictorial culture. Portrait of art historian Matteo Marangoni, caught leaning casually against his desk.

GAF2021.10

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 223; Larghezza: 158

olio su tela

The monumental canvas 'Nicolò Garaventa and the “Garaventine” youths in the school-ship Redenzione' was painted by Domingo Motta, a painter whose evocative work, “Lo spaccapietre” (1898), is already present in the Wolfsoniana.
The work, inspired by the stylistic and iconographic models of 19th-century social realism, presented at the 1898 Italian General Exhibition in Turin and most probably commissioned, documents one of the most fascinating stories of Genoese philanthropy: that of the educator and benefactor Nicolò Garaventa who, having received the Sardinian Navy brig “Daino” (later renamed “Redenzione”) as a gift from Umberto I, equipped the ship as a rehabilitation institute for marginalised youngsters. Oil on canvas depicting Nicolò Garaventa standing, leaning on his staff. Around him two young sailors lean out from the balustrade while a third mends a sail.