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In 1947, the piece was acquired by and first displayed in New York City's [[Museum of Modern Art]], where it has remained to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carlo Carrà. Funeral of the Anarchist Galli. 1910-11 {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79225 |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=N.Y.) |first=Museum of Modern Art (New York, |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/318135509 |title=Twentieth-century Italian art |date=1949 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |oclc=318135509}}</ref> ''The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli'' is widely considered to be Carrà's most influential piece.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli {{!}} painting by Carrà {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Funeral-of-the-Anarchist-Galli |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pinkus |first=Karen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191953074 |title=Bodily regimes : Italian advertising under fascism |date=1995 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-2562-8 |location=Minneapolis |oclc=191953074}}</ref>
In 1947, the piece was acquired by and first displayed in New York City's [[Museum of Modern Art]], where it has remained to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carlo Carrà. Funeral of the Anarchist Galli. 1910-11 {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79225 |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=N.Y.) |first=Museum of Modern Art (New York, |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/318135509 |title=Twentieth-century Italian art |date=1949 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |oclc=318135509}}</ref> ''The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli'' is widely considered to be Carrà's most influential piece.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli {{!}} painting by Carrà {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Funeral-of-the-Anarchist-Galli |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pinkus |first=Karen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191953074 |title=Bodily regimes : Italian advertising under fascism |date=1995 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-2562-8 |location=Minneapolis |oclc=191953074}}</ref>


== Analysis and Reception ==
== Analysis and reception ==


While Carrà drew inspiration from Cubism, Carrà stressed dynamism, as opposed to Cubism's static and analytical style. In 1912, the same year the painting was first exhibited, ''Futurist Manifesto'' would praise Carrà's use of fracturing in his piece, stating:<ref name=":5" />
While Carrà drew inspiration from Cubism, Carrà stressed dynamism, as opposed to Cubism's static and analytical style. In 1912, the same year the painting was first exhibited, ''Futurist Manifesto'' would praise Carrà's use of fracturing in his piece, stating:<ref name=":5" />

Revision as of 14:07, 1 July 2022

The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
Italian: Il Funerale dell’anarchico Galli
Abstract-representations of humans and horses baring black banners. A red casket is carried at the center beneath a shining sun.
ArtistCarlo Carrà
Year1910–1911 (1910–1911)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions198.7 cm. × 259.1 cm. (78¼ in. × 102 in.)
LocationMuseum of Modern Art, New York City

The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (Il Funerale dell’anarchico Galli) is a painting by Italian painter Carlo Carrà. It was finished in 1911, during the artist's futurist phase and is considered Carrà's most famous piece. The piece depicts the violent funeral of anarchist Angelo Galli, an event Carrà witnessed in his early adulthood. The piece was first displayed in 1912 and has been described as chaotic and violent. Since 1947, it has resided in New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

Reception of the piece has praised its use of intense, heavy lines as a means to display movement. Futurist Manifesto would praise Carrà's adaptation of Pablo Picasso’s Cubist techniques in the piece and critics have noted compositional similarities between The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli and Paolo Uccello's 3 canvas piece, The Battle of San Romano.

Description

Carrà's The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli combines elements of futurism, dynamism, and cubism, and was composed at the height of Carrà's futurist phase.[1][2]

The subject of the work is the funeral of Italian anarchist Angelo Galli, killed by police during a general strike in 1904.[3] In the center of the canvas, Galli’s coffin is painted draped in red cloth and uneasily balanced whilst being held aloft. Around the coffin are a series of darkened figures, depicting the anarchists[4], seemingly engaged in a fight. These figures are illuminated by two light sources emanating from the sun and the coffin.[2][5] Galli's coffin is illuminated to draw focus to both his centrality in the painting and his importance in the broader historical event depicted. On the left, the police cavalry are shown opposing the anarchists. The top third of the piece is dominated by darkly drawn diagonal lines, indicating banners, lances, flagpoles, and cranes, and drawing parallels to weapons of war.[4][2] The harsh angles and linework of the painting were designed to show the chaos, movement, and energy of the scene presented.[1][6] Additionally, the rounded bodies and overlapping lines gives the effect of moment.[5] The piece as a whole has been described as chaotic[2] and violent[6].

History

In 1904, Angelo Galli was killed during the 1904 Italian general strike. The Italian State feared that the funeral would become a de facto political demonstration and refused the procession of anarchists entrance into the cemetery itself.[2] Hundreds of people were in attendance and police were present on horseback.[4] When the anarchists resisted, the police responded with force and a violent scuffle ensued.[3] In his autobiography, Carrà stated he was present at the funeral, describing,[2]

File:Study for Funeral of the Anarchist Galli.jpg
1910, Carrà's Study for Funeral of the Anarchist Galli

I found myself unwillingly in the centre of it, before me I saw the coffin, covered in red carnations, sway dangerously on the shoulders of the pallbearers; I saw horses go mad, sticks and lances clash, it seemed to me that the corpse could have fallen to the ground at any moment and the horses would have trampled it. Deeply struck, as soon as I got home I did a drawing of what I had seen.

— Carrà, La mia vita (1945), [7]

In 1910, Carrà drew a pastel study: Study for Funeral of the Anarchist Galli in preparation for for his work on the final piece. It has been proposed that early renditions of The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli likely resembled the earlier study. In 1911, Carrà visited Paris, coming into contact with Picasso’s Cubism, and changing the canvas design to the piece seen today.[2] Carrà would incorporate Picasso’s technique of fracturing, or using corresponding and overlapping lines to display conflict, as a means to convey harsh movements.[4][5] The piece was first exhibited in 1912 when Felix Fénéon organized the The Italian Futurist Painters exhibition at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. Carrà was exhibited alongside other Futurist painters, including Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo, Gino Severini, and Giacomo Balla.[8]

In 1947, the piece was acquired by and first displayed in New York City's Museum of Modern Art, where it has remained to this day.[9][10] The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli is widely considered to be Carrà's most influential piece.[11][12]

Analysis and reception

While Carrà drew inspiration from Cubism, Carrà stressed dynamism, as opposed to Cubism's static and analytical style. In 1912, the same year the painting was first exhibited, Futurist Manifesto would praise Carrà's use of fracturing in his piece, stating:[4]

"If we paint the phases of a riot, the crowd bustling with uplifted fists and the noisy onslaught of the cavalry are translated upon the canvas in sheaves of lines corresponding to the conflicting forces, following the general law of violence of the picture. These force-lines must encircle and involve the spectator so that he will in a manner be forced to struggle himself with the persons in the picture."

The composition of Funeral has similarities with Paolo Uccello's The Battle of San Romano (Uffizi version shown).[2]

The piece has been compared to Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo’s Fourth Estate (Il Quarto Stato) for similar subject matter and ability to establish a "direct relationship between the viewer and the painting". The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli has been noted as 'unusual' for Futurist art, owing to its subject, scale, and historical importance.[2] The art historian and former director of the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., wrote, “fundamentally, in its main lines and masses Carrà’s Funeral is as classically organized as a fifteenth-century battle piece by Paolo Uccello.”[10]

The art historian Dr. Rosalind McKever has proposed that Fun​eral is compositionally similar to Uccello's The Battle of San Romano, noting that, "The clash between the anarchists and the police is compositionally closest to the Uffizi version; the dominance of black and red recalls the Louvre version; and the melee of flag poles, lances and cranes jutting into the sky is present in all three." McKever states that Carrà had likely seen the The Battle of San Romano prior to the composition of The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli.[2] Author Dr. Mark Antliff has proposed that Carrà's The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, along with other contemporary Futurists, incorporates the philosophical theories of Henri Bergson, in an attempt to "transform the consciousness of the Italian citizenry and inaugurate a political revolt against Italy's democratic institutions."[13]

Hungarian poet, Lajos Kassák wrote a dramatic prose account of the painting, "Carlo D. Carra anarkhistatemetés című képe alá" in A Tett, No.2 November 1915.[14][15]

References

  1. ^ a b "IdeelArt | The online gallerist". IdeelArt.com. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Carlo Carrà, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli – Smarthistory". smarthistory.org. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  3. ^ a b Heard Hamilton, George. (1993) Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940. 6th edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 282. ISBN 0300056494
  4. ^ a b c d e "Futurism Movement Overview". The Art Story. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  5. ^ a b c artincontext (2021-04-16). "Futurism – Looking Back at the Futurism Art Movement". artincontext.org. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  6. ^ a b Glaubinger, Jane (1982). "A Double-Sided Drawing by Ludwig Meidner". The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 69 (9): 297–307. ISSN 0009-8841.
  7. ^ Carrà, Carlo (1943). La Mia Vita
  8. ^ "A Curator's Guide to Félix Fénéon Exhibition Highlights | Magazine | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  9. ^ "Carlo Carrà. Funeral of the Anarchist Galli. 1910-11 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  10. ^ a b N.Y.), Museum of Modern Art (New York, (1949). Twentieth-century Italian art. Simon and Schuster. OCLC 318135509.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli | painting by Carrà | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  12. ^ Pinkus, Karen (1995). Bodily regimes : Italian advertising under fascism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-2562-8. OCLC 191953074.
  13. ^ Antliff, Mark (2000-12-01). "The Fourth Dimension and Futurism: A Politicized Space". The Art Bulletin. 82 (4): 720–733. doi:10.1080/00043079.2000.10786959. ISSN 0004-3079.
  14. ^ "Jelzés a világba: 105 éves Kassák háborúellenes lapja, A Tett « Mérce". Mérce (in Hungarian). 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  15. ^ Berghaus, Günter (2018-12-17). Handbook of International Futurism. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 551. ISBN 978-3-11-027356-4.
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