The next section of the museum is home to a collection of paintings and sculptures that take the visitor through the main artistic events of the 19th century. Our collection begins with Romanticism with works that can be dated back to the middle of the century. We are met at the entrance with precise, turned marble forms by Giuseppe Grandi who has depicted a young woman in elegant clothes and jewels, with a bird bringing her a message, perhaps a love letter. On the right-side wall of the room, you will see examples of painting with a literary inspiration, as typically found in the mid 19th century. Piedmont artist, Eleuterio Pagliano re-evokes a dramatic episode inspired by real events, the death of Titian’s daughter. His small painting was particularly appreciated by his contemporaries, so much so that another version can be found in the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan. Here Mosè Bianchi, with “After the duel”, shows his younger works, when his romantic and literary ideals, as inspired by Mediaeval subjects, were still intact. On the wall opposite, a “Landscape with Boats” attributed to Luigi Riccardi marks a move towards a realistic representation of the scene and human activities. This is even more evident in works from the second half of the century, such as the “Rustic courtyard” by Mosè’s brother, Gerardo Bianchi, displayed to your right.
We can follow Pompeo Mariani in his movements outside Monza, from the rice fields in the valley immortalised immediately before a storm, to the splendid seascapes of Liguria, with the animated life in the port in Genoa with impressions made vivid by reflections of light on the sea. Mariani’s activities towards the end of the century, on the threshold of the 20th century overlaps other movements for renewal, as shown in the experience of the Macchiaioli and Divisionism. In 2023, the museum was able to benefit from the donation of a small, precious painting by Giovanni Fattori: a “Cavalryman”, representing the painter’s synthetic, structured style. You can see it displayed at the end of the corridor, on the left. The change towards divisionism can be seen in later works, hanging on the right-hand wall: the “Alpine Cottage” by Achille Tominetti, and the “Alpine Pass” by Guido Cinotti, with extraordinary effects created using light and depth, a painting to be admired close up to appreciate the brush strokes, and also from farther away, to see the overall view.
Continuing back along the corridor in the opposite direction, you can see how the nineteenth-century sculptures reflect constantly changing artistic thought. The plaster by Ambrogio Borghi depicts the whole figure as a scenographic “Berenice” with thick hair, a preparatory model for the final statue. The plaster is less detailed with a more vibrant surface under the light, which is well evident in the later works of Ernesto Bazzaro. To him we owe the small bronze group, “In carovan” and the plaster bust of Achille Mapelli, garibaldino and well-known politician in Monza. With their irregular shapes, moulded by light, the pieces from the late 19th century are based on the methods of Scapigliatura and look to the fascination of orientalism.