Giuseppe Mazzini: a Profile. Giuseppe Mazzini can and should be considered the Fathers of the Fatherland, that is, one of the founders of modern Italy. The exhibition opens with the portrait executed by Giovanni Spertini in 1878, the same year in which, upon the death of Victor Emmanuel II, the State conceived the idea of building the Vittoriano.
Giuseppe Mazzini: a great communicator. Mazzini revealed remarkable gifts as a communicator from his early youth. Over time, he mastered the full range of media, traditional and mass, and put them at the service of the national cause. In this context, Mazzini exercised tight control over his public image and its dissemination through plaster, marble and bronze replicas, lithography, and photography, aware of their propagandistic value.
Silvestro Lega: a profile. Recognized as one of the leading exponents of the so-called Macchiaioli movement and among the leading painters of nineteenth-century Italy, Lega became acquainted with Mazzini's thought from an early age and became a follower of republican ideals. The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy and the subsequent triumph of the monarchy marked a moment of deep crisis for Lega, until 1872 when, in the presence of Mazzini's body, he decided to resume his commitment to the Father of the Fatherland.
Silvestro Lega: The Dying Mazzini. The painting that gives the title to this section-and constitutes the centerpiece of the entire exhibition -holds a pivotal role not only within Mazzini's iconographic imagery but also in Lega's own creative journey. The painter, who started from his own languagerooted in the Macchiaioli movement, matured an original and highly personal stylistic figure, which returns an image of Mazzini that is unprecedented and very far from the official iconography proposed by his followers.
The exhibition is the result of the efforts of the Ministry of Culture and the availability of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Its realization was possible thanks to a network of collaborations that brought together around the project the main custodians of the legacy of the two protagonists, Giuseppe Mazzini and Silvestro Lega.
The exhibition-which marks the strengthening of the virtuous collaboration between VIVE and the Institute for the History of the Italian Risorgimento-has the historical advice of Giuseppe Monsagrati and a network of collaborations and understandings involving a number of important institutes that preserve the memory of Giuseppe Mazzini and Silvestro Lega, such as the Biblioteca di Storia Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the Domus Mazziniana in Pisa, the Istituto Mazziniano-Museo del Risorgimento in Genoa, the Museo del Risorgimento in Milan, the Museo del Risorgimento in Pavia, the Municipality of Modigliana, the Diocese of Faenza-Modigliana and the Matteucci Institute in Viareggio.
In line with the VIVE Institute's desire to maintain a constant dialogue with its public, the exhibition offers an educational program aimed at all age groups: from guided tours dedicated to adults to workshops for children and families aimed at deepening their knowledge of the figure of Giuseppe Mazzini and the Risorgimento period.