A masterpiece by Francesco Hayez on display in Pontremoli. It is on loan from the Uffizi

A 19th-century masterpiece on loan from the Uffizi to Pontremoli for the Uffizi Diffusi project. It is the large portrait depicting Count Arese Lucini in prison, painted by the famous Romantic painter Francesco Hayez (Venice 1791 - Milan 1882) and purchased in 2022 by the Uffizi Galleries, where it has been on temporary display since January 1 this year. Its natural destination in the near future is the Gallery of Modern Art in the Pitti Palace, but in the meantime it has left for Lunigiana: in fact, it will be a guest of honor in the Municipal Palace of Pontremoli until August 31 this year.

The work depicts the most tragic moment in the life of former Napoleonic colonel Francesco Teodoro Arese Lucini, who had participated in the Risorgimento uprisings of 1820-21, ending up on trial and suffering a death sentence two years later. However, the sentence was converted to three years’ imprisonment in the Austrian Spielberg penitentiary after the colonel told the court the names of the other accused during the trial. The painting is characterized by its highly original story: it was Arese Lucini himself (on whom the mark of traitor from his comrades weighed for saving his life, but who claimed the impossibility of lying as a moral duty) who asked Hayez to have himself painted in a cell and in chains, to redeem his honor. By the time the work was executed, the sentence had indeed already been completed, but the great communicative effectiveness of the stunt, together with Hayez’s extraordinary pictorial talent, struck a chord with public opinion by showing the prostrate image of the Count in his imprisoned condition: this helped to dispel the not a few doubts about his trial behavior and even helped him to successfully put himself forward as a Risorgimento hero.

The work comes to the town of Lunigiana because there is a connection between Hayez and Pontremoli that arose with the historicist painting Pietro Rossi signore di Parma assediato nel Castello di Pontremoli (1818-1820), now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, with which the painter began his Romantic turn. The Rossi of Parma had become lords of Pontremoli in 1329. On June 13, 1336, the Scaligeri, who had occupied almost all of the Rossi’s domains, besieged Pontremoli and its castle, where Pietro Rossi resided with his family members who had retreated here. At this juncture, Pietro received a letter from Doge Dandolo in which the Venetian Senate proposed that he take command of the army of the Venetian Republic to defeat the Scaligeri, by whom the Serenissima was also threatened. Having accepted the proposal, despite the pleas and tears of his wife, Ginetta de’ Fieschi, and daughters, Pietro, in disguise, fled by night and went to Florence, where he arrived on August 23 to take up the task by uniting the Venetian troops, which had arrived there, with the Florentine ones. After a few months of resistance, the Rossi who remained in Pontremoli ceded this important fortified village to the Scaligeri, who held it until 1341 when the rule of the Visconti began.

“Hayez’s magnificent painting, purchased a few months ago by the Uffizi, is now being lent for the first time, and precisely to Pontremoli, sealing the great artist’s interest in the town,” comments director Eike Schmidt. “In fact, by depicting a tragic episode in local history he had initiated his most committed phase and his Romantic aesthetic turn. The portrait of Count Arese Lucini expresses to the highest degree the painter’s ability to recount the torments of the soul tried by the harsh conditions of Spielberg. Whether he was a traitor to his comrades is not for us to judge: the man in chains looks us straight in the eye and silently vindicates his moral reasons.”

“It is a great honor for Pontremoli to host this painting by Hayez, both because of the great artist’s splendid work and because of the planning context in which the event fits,” says Mayor Jacopo Ferri. “Uffizi Diffusi is in fact an exceptional intuition that offers the maximum dissemination and sharing of the amazing heritage of the Galleries. It is therefore an unrenounceable opportunity for our City to be able to host both the winning idea and the artistic genius. An opportunity that is taken with conviction and with the will, if possible, to make it a beautiful habit. For all this I want to thank Director Schmidt from the bottom of my heart, along with all his outstanding staff, Lucia Baracchini, our ’Pro Sindaco,’ and Paolo Lapi who have made another Pontremolese dream come true.”

A masterpiece by Francesco Hayez on display in Pontremoli. It is on loan from the Uffizi

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