21 December
Between walls built from large blocks of stone, in what could be a castle, two young lovers kiss passionately. A very romantic scene that has become a pop icon.
But that actually hides a precise political message of nationalist love and hatred of foreigner oppressors. Francesco Hayez painted the first version of “Il Bacio” in 1859.
We are in the middle of the “Risorgimento” period. After the riots of ’48, the first War of Independence failed but it is still being fought, often in secret. Mindful of the defeat of the Carbonari movement, repressed in blood, Hayez, in order to escape censorship interventions, masks the ideals of conspiracy and struggle against oppression under the representation of past events.
Looking closer, the young man who kisses the girl carries a dagger and is about to climb the first step of the stairs. This physical instability expresses a certain nervousness, as if the kiss was moved not by a simple sentimental longing, but by an imminent departure, and this romantic gesture was actually a heart-breaking farewell. A young patriot who greets his beloved girl before going to fight? In the shadow that can be glimpsed on the left, a hidden, disturbing presence, perhaps an Austrian spy who watches over the two lovers.
The work met with great success, so much so that Hayez reproduced it in two more versions, with minor changes between one and the other. However, these changes were also in a patriotic key. In the first version, the light blue of the woman’s dress and the bright red of the young man’s tights allude not too subtly to the French flag: Hayez, in fact, intended to pay homage to the Plombières agreements between Napoleon III and Cavour. In the copy of 1861, the year of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, the girl’s dress takes on a neutral white tone, as a sign of homage to the so eagerly awaited Italian unification. In the third version, Italy manifests itself instead in the guise of the man, who here – in addition to the already present red tights – also wears a green coat. There is an additional white cloth on the stairs, which therefore with green and red symbolizes the Italian national flag.
Fantasies of art historians? Not at all. Francesco Hayez, who died on 21 December 1882 at the age of 91, had been very active and politically aligned, he was a friend of the cultural elite, like Mazzini and Manzoni. Even if he had to undergo, during his long life, checks and interventions of censorship prepared by the Bourbons, the Habsburgs and the Papal State, there are many of his works that contain an encrypted patriotic message of the “Risorgimento”.
Not exactly a “sweet” subject even if the popular Baci chocolate producer were inspired by Hayez for their logo.
