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''Pietro Rossi'' is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1818–1820 by the Italian artist
''Pietro Rossi'' is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1818–1820 by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez
Francesco Hayez (; 10 February 1791 – 12 February 1882) was an Italian painter. He is considered one of the leading artists of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, and is renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories, and ...
, now in the San Fiorano collection in Milan. A copy is in the Pinacoteca di Brera
The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...
, also in Milan. Both show Pietro Rossi, accepting an invitation from Francesco Dandolo
Monument to Doge Francesco Dandolo
Francesco Dandolo (died 1339) was the 52nd Doge of Venice. He ruled from 1329 to 1339. During his reign Venice began its policy of extending its territory on the Italian mainland.
Family
The Dandolo fam ...
via a messenger to take command of the Venetian resistance to the expansionist Scaligeri
The Della Scala family, whose members were known as Scaligeri () or Scaligers (; from the Latinized ''de Scalis''), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years.
History
Wh ...
. The work links a heroic past event to contemporary events and a Romantic sensitivity, as in historical novels of the same period such as Alessandro Manzoni
Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel '' The Betrothed'' (orig. it, I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the maste ...
's 1840 '' The Betrothed''.
The San Fiorano version was first exhibited at the Brera in 1820 under its full title ''Pietro Rossi, lord of Parma, despoiled of his estates by the Scaligers, lords of Verona, being sent to defend the castle of Pontremoli and to take command of the Venetian army, which was due to move against his enemies, his wife and two daughters tearfully begging him to refuse the command''. There it received great acclaim thanks to its "medieval-historical" subject and its drama and emotion reinforced by a dark and shadowy palette.*
References