Period: second half of the 19th century

Sculpture in white statuary marble by Francesco Barzaghi (Milan 1839-1892) entitled "Blind fly".

Coeval wooden base with swivel top. Sculpture height 119 cm plus base height of 93 cm.

This sculpture was exhibited for the first time in Brera in 1869 where it obtained the Prince Umberto prize.

BIOGRAPHY:

Francesco Barzaghi (Milan 1839 - 1892)

Born in Milan in 1839, he attended the studies of Tantardini and Alessandro Puttinati. He then enrolled at the Brera Academy where he followed the courses of Hunters. He is a fellow student of Vincenzo Vela to whom he is stylistically close in the ways of Realism.

Among his works, the one that is considered his masterpiece stands out, the equestrian statue of Napoleon III, today in the Sempione Park; Frine, from 1867, presented in Paris in the same year and today at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan; Goddess of Flowers (post 1878), also in the same Gallery.

He executed works of a sacred nature for the Cathedral of Milan: Saints Ilario, Venceslao (1865) and Adelaide and for that of Bergamo: Saints Bartolomeo and Tommaso (1870).

His celebratory works of the Risorgimento are the Verdi for the atrium of the Teatro alla Scala, the Monument to Alessandro Manzoni in Piazza San Fedele in Milan (1883), the monument to Luciano Manara in the public gardens of Porta Venezia and to Francesco Hayez (1890) in the square Brera. In 1874 he sculpted the monument to Count Pompeo Litta Biumi at the Brera Academy building, inaugurated on the occasion of the commemoration of the Milanese historian.

Other statues by him are dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II in Bergamo (1884), Lodi (1883) and Genoa (1886) and to Garibaldi in Crema and Soresina, both from 1885. For Venice, he executed the monument to Niccolò Tommaseo (1882).

In 1880 he was appointed to teach sculpture in Brera, a position he held until 1892, the year of his death.

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