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Francesco Hayez · 1850

Meditation on the History of Italy

Posters from $15.00 CAD · Canvas from $39.00 CAD

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A bare-breasted personification of Italy, a cross at her throat, holding a book of Italian history — Hayez's political allegory of the failed 1848 revolutions. Museum of Modern Art, Verona.

Up to 16 × 24 in · portrait

Size

Larger sizes are unavailable for this painting because the source scan's resolution wouldn't print at gallery quality.

Format & finish

Archival cotton canvas stretched over a wooden frame. Ready to hang as-is. No external frame.

Scale next to a 5'10" person

1624

+ tax at checkout

Materials & quality

Canvas & inks

Giclée-printed on archival cotton canvas with fade-resistant pigment inks, hand-stretched over wooden bars. Gallery-wrapped — ready to hang with no extra frame needed.

Floater frame

Hand-finished solid wood floater frame in five finishes. The canvas sits inside with a clean shadow gap — the way galleries hang contemporary canvas.

Posters

Premium archival paper — 200 gsm soft matte or 230 gsm vibrant glossy. Ships flat or rolled, ready for your own frame.

Faithful to the source

Printed from the highest-resolution museum and archive scans available. Each painting's maximum size is capped at what its source scan can support at gallery quality.

The story of Meditation on the History of Italy

La Meditazione is an 1851 oil painting by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez. It is an allegorical painting featuring a young woman representing mid-nineteenth century Italy, amidst the process of the Risorgimento that led to the unification to the country. It was a reflection of the failure of the Revolution of 1848. She is shown with a thoughtful expression and both a book representing the history of Italy and crucifix representing the religious faith of the Catholic Church. More strikingly she is shown with one of her breasts exposed. Today the painting is in the collection of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Palazzo Forti in Verona.

Adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Francesco Hayez

Francesco Hayez was an Italian painter. He is considered one of the leading artists of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, and is renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories, and portraits.

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Biography adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.