Milan during the Risorgimento

This canvas map reconstructs Milan at the time of the Five Days of 1848, restoring both the urban landscape and the political atmosphere of a city at the heart of the Risorgimento.

The drawing is inspired by several historical maps, particularly William Barnard Clarke’s 1832 plan, enriched with the construction dates of the main buildings and monuments already standing in 1848: from the Arena Civica to the Arch of Peace, from Teatro alla Scala to Teatro Carcano. The result is a precise urban portrait that allows pre‑unification Milan to be read through its symbolic architecture.

On either side of the map appear the busts of the era’s key figures, embodying the political and cultural tensions of the period. In the foreground stands Napoleon Bonaparte, who made Milan the capital of the Kingdom of Italy and left a decisive urban imprint—from the push to complete the façade of the Duomo to the ambitious design of the Foro Buonaparte, of which only the Arena Civica was realized.

Beside him are the faces of Field Marshal Josef Radetzky, symbol of Austrian rule, and the leaders of the Milanese uprising such as Gabrio Casati, Carlo Cattaneo, and Cesare Correnti.

Completing the tableau are the inspirational figures of Italian patriotism: Alessandro Manzoni, author of the ode Marzo 1821, and Giuseppe Verdi, whose Nabucco—premiered at La Scala in 1842—became an emblem of national sentiment.

The map also contextualizes the long political transition preceding 1848: from the Napoleonic era to the Restoration established by the Congress of Vienna, when Milan became the capital of the Lombardy‑Venetia Kingdom under the Austrian Empire. It was a period marked by cultural ferment, the birth of Milanese Romanticism with Il Conciliatore, the work of Hayez, and a growing desire for independence.

At the heart of the narrative, however, remains the uprising of the Five Days, from 18 to 22 March 1848: the barricades, Radetzky’s retreat, the formation of the Provisional Government, the arrival of Piedmontese troops, and the raising of the tricolour over the Duomo. A brief yet decisive moment that anticipated the path toward Italian unification, completed only after the Second War of Independence and the Peace of Zurich in 1859.

The canvas thus becomes a visual and historical synthesis: a Milan in transformation, suspended between foreign domination, national aspirations, and major urban projects, narrated through the places, faces, and dates that shaped its destiny.

ATTENTION!

DOES NOT INCLUDE FRAME.

DOES NOT INCLUDE WOODEN FRAME.