Giovanni Spertini: the portrait of Giuseppe Mazzini- ultimo ritratto

The portrait of Giuseppe Mazzini, created by Pavia sculptor Giovanni Spertini in 1878, depicts the Father of the Fatherland with a sash bearing one of his most famous mottos, “GOD AND THE PEOPLE,” inextricably linked to the Roman Republic.

It is a solidly volumetric piece designed to give the illusion that the Father of the Fatherland was still alive-although made six years after Mazzini himself died in Pisa in March 1872-and present to those who had personally known him and all his followers.

On the one hand, the artist reproduced with the greatest possible fidelity every detail of the face, from the veins on the forehead to the folds on the cheeks, from the wrinkles to the individual hairs on the beard, placing himself in open competition with the many photographs in circulation. On the other, he focused on the intensity of the gaze, accentuated by the deep hollow of the eyes, to restore Mazzini's inner energy, charisma, and strength of thought.

The work - created the same year in which the idea of the Vittoriano began to become a reality - constitutes an important and recent acquisition (2023) by the VIVE Institute, and will enrich the visit route dedicated precisely to the history and myth of the Vittoriano, which is currently being created.