Collection
This section contains information on the works in Lucca’s Museum of the Risorgimento.
This section contains information on the works in Lucca’s Museum of the Risorgimento.
In. 685 Lithograph Francesco Nullo (1826 – 1863), born in Bergamo to a family belonging to the well-to-do business middle class, took part in the Five Days of Milan in 1848 and the following year in the defence of the Roman Republic. In 1859 he fought at Varese and San Fermo. The expedition to Sicily saw him spearhead various acts of bravery: despite being wounded at Calatafimi, it was Nullo...
Lithograph The brothers Andrea (1819 – 1887) and Jacopo Sgarallino (1823 – 1879) from Livorno are examples of the common people who supported Garibaldi and the Italian cause. Andrea fought at Montanara in 1848 and was involved in the ill-fated defence of Livorno in the following year. In 1860 he joined Garibaldi at Milazzo. Wounded at Caserta, he was decorated with a silver medal. In 1866 he was involved in...
Inv. 324 21×27 cm Letter, ink on paper Alfredo Cappellini (1828 – 1866), from Livorno, attended the Naval Academy in Genoa. He became a midshipman in 1848 and in 1855 fought in the Crimean War. Captaining a frigate, he was involved in the siege of Gaeta and in 1866 was commander of the steam corvette Palestro. It was the year of the third war of independence. The defeat at Custoza...
The battle of Mentana was fought between some 5,000 volunteers led by Garibaldi, and 11,000 French-Papal troops. Having entered the Papal States, the General forced the Monterotondo garrison to surrender (25 October 1867), but in the meantime the Rome uprising failed. Garibaldi, having been informed that a French contingent had disembarked at Civitavecchia, attacked the Papal troops. The battle was turning in favour of the red shirts until the intervention...
The 1905 film about the capture of Rome “La presa di Roma” was the first feature film in the history of Italian cinema, directed and produced by Filoteo Alberini (1867 -1937), a pioneer of Italian cinematography. The film, shown in Rome on 20 September 1905 on a large screen erected outside the breach in the walls at Porta Pia in the presence of tens of thousands of spectators from all...
Oil on board The picture, artist unknown, is a copy of a famous painting by Silvestro Lega (1826 – 1895) The Death of Mazzini, stripped of rhetoric the picture shows him on his deathbed in Pisa on 10 March 1872. His shoulders are wrapped in plaid blanket that had belonged to Carlo Cattaneo. Having returned to Italy in secret after his latest arrest in 1870, Giuseppe Mazzini (Genoa 1805 –...
Announcement of the funeral honours following the death of Garibaldi. Exhibited with the notice are a giltwood reliquary frame containing a twig from the pine tree that shades Garibaldi’s tomb on Caprera, donated by his daughter Clelia (together with a scroll with a hand-written dedication), and a fragment of granite from Garibaldi’s tomb with a card written by Clelia Garibaldi. “But one day suddenly, almost unbelievably, like something that could...
17 May 1897, Domokos in the Greek region of Thessaly: Garibaldi’s men fighting alongside the Greeks. During the Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army suffered a heavy defeat only partly redeemed by the bravery of the Italian volunteers in their red shirts who rushed to the aid of the Greeks. A significant example of Garibaldi’s internationalism in support of freedom of the people.
Bag carried by means of a shoulder strap suitable for personal effects, supplementary ammunition or a first aid kit. Made from thick fabric, it is rectangular and has top flap that folds over part of the front in order to close it. In the 1915 – 18 war, the Italian army use a standard design of haversack that had been in use since 1907.
The Great War was the first time asphyxiating gases were used. It happened on 22 April 1915, at Ypres, on the western front. In order to overcome enemy resistance, the Germans fired artillery shells filled with chlorine gas, with devastating effects. From then on, toxic gases were used by all the armies. The most commonly used chemical compounds in addition to chlorine were bromine, phosgene and chloropicrin. To protect the...