Giovanni Muzzioli (Modena, February 10, 1854 - Modena, August 5, 1894)

"The sword dance"

Dim. 75 x 125 cm.

Giovanni Muzzioli, a Modenese painter, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Modena and completed his training in Rome and Florence. In Rome, where he found himself from 1873, he documented classical antiquity and came into contact with antiquing genre painting, inspired by wall painting brought to light by the excavations of Pompeii and the surrounding areas. In addition, in 1878 he had the opportunity to explore the subject further and visited the Paris Exposition, where he saw the works of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, a Dutch artist who became the leading exponent of a genre that was very successful in the second half of the Nineteenth century: neo-Pompeian painting. This current preferred the representation of subjects from the classical world and scenes of ancient setting. "The dance of the swords", or "Cubistetèira", falls within the genre of neo-Pompeian paintings. The setting is inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity: the scene takes place on a terrace from which you can see the rest of the city. In the center there is a dance scene: the dancer, called cubistetèira, is intent on this dance between swords stuck in the ground, while another girl in front of her plays a double flute. On the right there are spectators intent on observing the game. All the characters are portrayed in ancient Roman-style clothing. On the left, next to the girl who plays the flute, there is a fountain surrounded by vegetation.

In this work Muzzioli proposes a moment of everyday life: he looks at the ancient world but not at illustrious personalities, but at common figures of the people. We are looking for a truer vision of the reality depicted and of the subjects portrayed, so much so that the landscape represented can suggest inspiration for real places and even the figures refer to Muzzioli's observation of common people of his time.

In addition to this precise painting, there is another version preserved in Modena in the collection of the Art Collection of the Province (catalog of the exhibition The true, the exhibition and the fiction, Modena 2009-2010, p.57, pl. 12). In the latter, the same characters and the same dance scene are maintained, but instead of the fountain on the left a column covered with a climbing plant is depicted.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: catalog of the Giovanni Muzzioli exhibition. The truth, history and fiction, G. Martinelli Braglia, P. Nicholls, L. Rivi (edited by), Turin, 2009

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