The Fourth Estate by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, on display in the Salone dei Cinquecento at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It is one of the most famous pictorial works created between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exceptionally loaned by Museum of the twentieth century of Milano, on display in Florence until 30 June. The initiative, on the occasion of the First of May, was born from the relationship between Milan and Florence, already started on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to Three Pietà by Michelangelo. Exhibition in progress at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo of the Tuscan capital.
The Fourth Estate in Florence
The project, of the Museo Novecento in Florence and the Museo del Novecento in Milan curated by Danka Giacon and Sergio Risaliti, is a unique opportunity to admire the masterpiece of Pellizza da Volpedo. A work that bursts with its profound political and social significance within the Renaissance scenario that adorns the monumental Salone dei Cinquecento. Acquired by the Municipality of Milan in 1920, thanks to a fundraiser promoted by the socialist mayor Emilio Caldara, The Fourth Estate was exposed to Palazzo Marino, at the Gallery of Modern Art. The masterpiece of the Piedmontese artist, since 2010 is in fact kept at the Museo del Novecento in Milan.
The work has become iconic following the association of the large painting with a renewed and always current one social utopia, often celebrated during the events for the Labour day. For the First of May, on the occasion of metropolitan Sunday, all residents of the city of Florence will be able to visit the work for free. In Sala d'Arme of Palazzo Vecchio a special project for photography will also be created, in collaboration with Alinari Foundation which will have at the center the world of work from the nineteenth century onwards.
Pellizza da Volpedo
Giuseppe Pellizza is an Italian painter born in Volpedo (Alessandria) and lived between the end of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth century. In the first period of his career he was a pointillist artist, that is, an exponent of the pictorial current that divided colors and then an exponent of the social current. In 1901 he concludes The Fourth Estate, to which he dedicated ten years of study and intense work. The work, exhibited the following year inlla Quadrennial of turin, it does not get the desired recognition but instead arouses bewilderment and controversy. Difficult years and strong misunderstandings with the artistic world begin for the artist. In 1097, due to the death of his wife, he plunges into a state of depression which leads to suicide. His famous work The Fourth Estate, widely revalued after his death, today it is the symbol of the working class and social struggles from the nineteenth century onwards.
(On the cover Il Quarto Stato by Pellizza da Volpedo - Wikipedia - public domain)
