The Pinacoteca Divisionismo Tortona has enriched its permanent collection with a masterpiece by Umberto Boccioni (Reggio Calabria, 1882 - Verona, 1916): Mrs. Maffi. A Master of the Scene from 1909. The painting, made at a crucial moment in Boccioni’s career, marks the transition from the Divisionist experience to the first Futurist insights. The figure portrayed, the actress Adalgisa Maffi, dominates the composition with a plastic and luministic force that already anticipates the artist’s stylistic evolution. The work was exhibited for the first time in 1910 in Venice, at Boccioni’s solo exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro, and today it is part of the Italian museum circuit thanks to the synergy between the public and private sectors.
“The portrait of stage mistress Adalgisa Maffi,” explains Pier Luigi Rognoni, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona, “undoubtedly represents a milestone in Umberto Boccioni’s artistic career. Entering the collection of the Fondazione C.R. Tortona allows the Pinacoteca Divisionismo to document in even greater depth the influences of the divided painting technique on the protagonists of the Futurist revolution. The fortuitous artistic encounter with the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research has given rise to a valuable multi-year collaboration for the fundamental support of scientific research.”
“We are deeply grateful to the Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona for this important donation,” says Giuseppe Remuzzi, Director of the Mario Negri Institute, “which combines the value of art with the concrete support of scientific research. Investing in research and young talents means building the future: it means believing in knowledge as an engine of progress and in education as the key to facing tomorrow’s challenges. The Foundation’s support is not only a concrete help, but also a strong signal of trust in science and the new generations.”
In 2005, the Mario Negri Institute was in fact the beneficiary of a generous donation of works of art by Prof. Giuseppe Mattioli with the intention of supporting the research of the Department of Oncology named after the Nerina and Mario Mattioli Foundation - Onlus. The paintings arrived at the Institute in 2021. Prominent among the works was Mrs. Maffi. A Master of the Stage by Umberto Boccioni. In January 2025, the work was acquired, thanks to a generous donation, by the Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona, going to enrich the prestigious collection of the Divisionism Picture Gallery. The proceeds from the sale of the painting will go to support Mario Negri’s scientific research in both experimental and clinical oncology, and the Foundation has also decided to accompany a young researcher in his training for the next three years with a scholarship.
But the value of the work is not limited to the artistic field. The painting’s collecting history reconstructed by art historian Sharon Hecker brings to light a dramatic fragment of the Italian twentieth century. After Boccioni’s death in 1916, the painting passed to the artist’s mother and then entered the collection of accountant Enrico Bachi, a Jew from Turin. During the years of racial laws, the Bachi family was the victim of confiscation and persecution. The painting, which escaped requisition, survived the war guarded by friends of the family, then remained in private ownership for decades before being purchased by La Bussola Gallery in Turin in 1961 and later by Mattioli.
The arrival in Tortona of La Signora Maffi is not an isolated case. Only a few months ago, the Pinacoteca welcomed Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo’s The Way of the Workers, a preparatory study for the famous Fourth Estate. Two acquisitions that reinforce the museum’s role as a national point of reference for the study of Divisionism and its ramifications toward Futurism and the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. The Pinacoteca del Divisionismo in Tortona now holds 145 works, including as many as 27 by Pellizza (of which 19 are on display). In addition to him, the exhibition recounts the work of Angelo Morbelli, Emilio Longoni, Plinio Nomellini, Gaetano Previati, Giovanni Segantini, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Fornara and Boccioni himself. A modern and articulated layout, divided by themes and techniques, allows visitors to explore the many souls of Divisionism: from luministic research to Symbolist instances, from alpine landscapes to social realism. With its new layout, the museum relaunches the enhancement of Piedmont’s historical-artistic heritage and also affirms art’s ability to dialogue with science and memory, transcending disciplinary and temporal boundaries.
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| Boccioni masterpiece enters the collection of the Pinacoteca Divisionismo in Tortona. It will help cancer research |
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