It is a homecoming for the Quarto Stato by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo at the GAM Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan.
The work, created in 1901, is considered a divisionist masterpiece, of which very few are known.
The scene depicted – a group of workers claiming their rights at the end of the 19th century – has become so well-known that it is regarded as a pop icon.
Why Quarto Stato?
In the 19th century, the term Quarto Stato referred to the humblest social class of the people, primarily composed of workers. The three figures standing out in front of the crowd, two men and a woman holding a child, symbolize the lower classes.
Despite being dressed in poor clothing, they possess the pride and determination of those claiming their rights.
The Quarto Stato: the studies and the work
Before arriving at the Quarto Stato as we admire it today, Pellizza da Volpedo created several preliminary studies: Ambassadors of Hunger (1892), The Path of Workers (1899) and The Fiumana (1895), currently preserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
Unfortunately, Fiumana remained unfinished due to the state massacre ordered by General Bava Beccaris during the riots in Milan in early May 1898.
Pellizza, deeply shaken by the deaths caused by the military, dedicated himself to an even more monumental version of the work, which he worked on almost obsessively.
Thus, the Quarto Stato was born.
The protagonist is the mass of workers marching, carrying forward the strike while simultaneously gaining the strength and power to negotiate their wages.
The light plays a symbolic role in the painting: it strikes the men but illuminates the woman, whose image may evoke that of a Christian maternity. The crowd is more blurred and darkened towards the background. In contrast, the light is more intense at the head of the procession.
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The return to GAM
The Quarto Stato has had a rather troubled history.
The painting, once completed, was proposed by the artist for several exhibitions but was consistently rejected.
Pellizza died by suicide in June 1907 and never saw it exhibited.
After various vicissitudes, the Quarto Stato arrived at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna thanks to a public subscription, but in 2010 it was transferred to the Museo del Novecento, which had just been inaugurated, where it remained until today.
Since early July, the painting has returned “home” to the GAM.
Here, a special area has been created to welcome it, located more precisely between room 28, which houses the Maternity by Gaetano Previati, and room 30 dedicated to Giovanni Segantini.
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