Moses Bianchi is undoubtedly the most renowned artist born in the city of Monza in 1840. A memorable figure, with his long white beard, he was the absolute protagonist of the city’s artistic scene in the second half of the nineteenth century, a period of great ferment that saw numerous painters at work in the city, from Eugenio Spreafico to Emilio Borsa, up to the famous Pompeo Mariani. The Civic Museums of Monza house several works by Moses Bianchi, including the preparatory cartoon for the “Genius of House Savoy“, a rare and delicate piece both for its materials and for the specifics related to its conservation and public display.
The city experienced a period of radical changes at the end of the nineteenth century, both in its urban fabric and in its social dimension: Monza was on its way to becoming the undisputed capital of the hat industry, and among the towers of churches and the surviving sections of medieval walls, its skyline appeared dotted with chimneys and factories extending into the suburbs, still characterized by a rural dimension that would survive until the early years of the twentieth century.
But another, decisive presence characterized Monza at the end of the nineteenth century: the villa, designed a century earlier by Giuseppe Piermarini for Maria Theresa of Austria, who wanted it as a country residence for her son, the governor of Lombardy, had become the preferred summer residence of Prince Umberto and Princess Margherita of Savoy, who became King and Queen of Italy in 1878.
The chronicles of the travels of an entire court that moved to Monza for months are memorable, where Umberto pursued his passions and Margherita received guests with the elegance and grace that distinguished her. The sovereigns loved to travel by train, and Monza offered the convenience of a railway line – the second in Italy after the Naples-Portici line – that facilitated travel. This is why, in 1883, the old Monza station was replaced by a larger building, within which a waiting room reserved for the royals and their guests, the so-called “Royal Room”, was created. Moses Bianchi was then commissioned to create a celebratory painting of the Savoy dynasty on the ceiling of the room, characterized by a richly eclectic decoration.
Bianchi dedicated particular care to the development of the subject: numerous drawings and preparatory sketches preserved in various museums bear witness to this, while the Civic Museums of Monza exhibit the preliminary sketch, donated by Moses’s nephew, Pompeo Mariani. The sketch still tells the troubled gestation of the complex painting, particularly related to the challenging solution of the upward perspective: a winged genius supports, amidst a throng of putti, the shield of the House of Savoy with the symbols of royalty. The Savoy shield, the crown, and the collar of the Annunciation dominate the center against the backdrop of a fluttering red drape, while the blue sky with light white clouds is meant to “break through” the ceiling of the Royal Room, utilizing the Tiepolesque suggestions that Bianchi had brought back from his stays in Veneto.
Precisely because it was an occasion for study, the sketch presents some reconsiderations, particularly evident in the figure of the genius, reshaped by the insertion of a small piece of paper glued over the canvas to allow for a better correction of the anatomy, as can be seen from the part of the leg and foot of the young man that the recent restoration has brought back to light.
Once the overall composition was defined, Moses Bianchi proceeded to create the life-size preparatory cartoon, a delicate and monumental work measuring almost 5 meters by 3.5 meters, which has found its rightful place in the museum spaces since 2014.
Donated by the family of Moses Bianchi’s other nephew, Emilio Borsa, the cartoon provides us with an additional piece in the painter’s creative process, in an ideal journey that takes us from the initial idea to the final result, which we can still admire on the ceiling of the Royal Room of the station.
