The myth of Garibaldi and the bicentenary of his birth

In the bicentenary of the birth of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Genoa is commemorating Italy’s famous hero with a series of exhibitions and other initiatives.
For this unique occasion, the Palazzo Ducale, the Gallery of Modern Art (Nervi), the Wolfsoniana, the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Accademia Ligustica will be exhibiting a spectacular assembly of works, ranging from great nineteenth-century historical and genre paintings to Michelangelesque paintings in a symbolist vein, and from sculptures to propaganda iconography to reconstruct the myth of Garibaldi and the appeal of his epic story.

The works on display give an idea of the themes and images that ran through political culture in both the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and demonstrate how firmly the myth of Garibaldi was rooted in the common people.

From Lega to Guttuso, Palazzo Ducale, Appartamento del Doge

Bringing together works by various generations of artists who were alive and active during the second half of the nineteenth century – included are artists who belonged to the Macchiaioli movement from Tuscany, Lombard Romantics and also Verists from
Naples and Sicily - the exhibition aims to illustrate the Garibaldi myth in its various manifestations, looking back over the development of historical painting and so-called genre painting in relation to the popular epos of Garibaldi. The exhibition is divided
into twelve sections; it opens with the crucial period Garibaldi spent in Rome between 1848 and 1849, his flight to Venice and the death of Anita, going on to look at his later legendary exploits, and ending with his period of solitude on Caprera and his final
victorious expedition in aid of the French Republic.

From Rodin to D’Annunzio: a Monument to the Thousand at Quarto, Galleria d’Arte Moderna

Works by Italian and European artists who were active in the period between the end of the nineteenth century and the first world war (including masters such as Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle, Ivan Mestrovic, Franz von Stück, Gaetano Previati and Leonardo Bistolfi) bear witness to the return to a Michelangelesque classicism that is interpreted in a symbolist vein which points towards the tastes of the younger generations.
The exhibition gives an idea of how, in the context of European symbolism, the characteristics and artistic legacy of Michelangelo were adopted to celebrate the myth of Garibaldi. The visitor to the exhibition is offered a compelling reconstruction of this
symbolism in the form of its leading figures. In particular, it gave inspiration to the sculptor Eugenio Baroni (Taranto 1880 - Genoa 1935) in his design for the monument celebrating Giuseppe Garibaldi and the departure of the Thousand from the rocks
of Quarto.
In addition to Baroni’s work, the exhibition also shows paintings, sculptures and graphic works by famous figures active in the figurative field at the turn of the century such as Giulio Aristide Sartorio, Adolfo De Carolis, Antonio Rizzi, Angelo Zanelli,
Adolfo Wildt, Hans Stolte Lerche, Libero Andreotti, Galileo Chini, Mario Rutelli, Domenico Rambelli, Plinio Nomellini, Hendrik Christian Andersen, EdoardoDe Albertis, Pietro Dodero, Giovanni Prini, and G.B. Salvatore Bassano.

Posters and Propaganda, Wolfsoniana

The exhibition puts on display a significant collection of posters, postcards, graphic material and memorabilia from public and private collections. More than twenty posters, some particularly large in size, illustrate how both the various themes surrounding Garibaldi and the man himself have been used for media and propaganda purposes: from Risorgimento hero to icon of early fascist
movimentism, from romantic and national-popular hero to point of reference for the Democratic Popular Front at the 1948 elections. Among the authors of the posters the following should be mentioned: Mario Borgoni, Leonetto
Cappiello, Aurelio Craffonara, Plinio Nomellini and Filippo Romoli.

Garibaldi’s Genoa, Museo del Risorgimento

Paintings, relics, scarves, flags, arms, original writings and newspapers serve here to show the role that Genoa played in the origin and development of the myth of Garibaldi both in the city itself and in the world at large. They once again reflect how
word of his exploits spread, as they captivated the interest of journalists of the day, for whom Garibaldi embodied a mythical image from the unrest in Uruguay onwards.
Genoa is the city Garibaldi left from and came back to after his journeys overseas, the place where he made preparations for the departure of the Thousand in 1860; and it is also the city which constructed and consolidated his image as a man who
was driven by a great passion for freedom, who had the capacity to involve and sway people and who was able to fight for strong ideals. Rounding out the image of the myth of Garibaldi are works from private and public collections (including those of Francesco Paolo Tronca and of the Spadolini Foundation).

The preparatory sketch for the equestrian statue of Garibaldi will be positioned so that the visitor examining it will at the same time also be able to look out on to the statue itself, which since 1893 has dominated the most prestigious square in the city. Archive material and vedute – paintings and engravings – illustrate the genesis of the monument and the evolution of the surrounding setting from the Piazza di San Domenico of medieval times to today’s Largo Pertini.

“Garibaldi. Il mito”
17 nov 2007 - 2 mar 2008

Palazzo Ducale
Genova