RICREATIVITA' E AGGREGAZIONE

The fresco created by Annibale Gatti at Villa Mimbelli is a tribute from the family of Dalmatian origins to the history of the city that welcomed them, so much that the work was positively greeted by commentators of the time who appreciated the sensitivity of the lady of the house, Enrichetta Rodocanacchi, for choosing a historical and patriotic theme “grateful to those who feel love for their native land and its glories”.

Over the centuries, the monument of the Four Moors with Ferdinand I, proudly displayed on the Darsena, has been represented in countless prints or in the travel impressions that foreign visitors have drawn, including those of the famous English painter William Turner.

Subsequently, even the painters of the local school reproduced the same content in their own paintings. They approached the sculptural group as a privileged subject, as seen for example in The Moor by Vittorio Nomellini at the Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum or as part of the background of wider scenes, as in the monumental canvas by Natale Betti, The entrance of Vittorio Emanuele II to Livorno, exhibited at the seat of the Prefecture of Livorno.

The plaster model of the original work is preserved at the Museum of the City of Livorno, where similarities in poses and movement of the bodies are observed, while substantial differences appear in the heads of at least two characters, witnessing the different phases of execution and elaboration of the work that engaged the artist Pietro Tacca for several years.