ePrivacy and GPDR Cookie Consent by TermsFeed Generator
Opera

Allegory of Work

Adolfo Tommasi, 1905. Tempera painting on canvas, 100 x 148 cm

A young man sitting on a stone parapet, bare-chested and wearing blue trousers, perhaps jeans, rolled up to the knee to show off the effort and heat, is about to beat his hammer on a red-hot metal spike sitting on the anvil, that lights up the painting with its earth tones. He is a blacksmith, but the painting wants to depict this specific worker. His face, in fact, remains covered, as it is the work itself that is the emphasis. He does so by copying the ancient classic image of Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods, the god of fire and metalworking, and updating it with modernity: there are smoking chimneys in the background, an indicator of industrial progress, perhaps they are the ones from the large, modern factory of the Societa’ Metallurgica Italiana in the Torretta district of Livorno. The work is the last of a group of four allegories (Education, Charity, Industry) commissioned to Adolfo Tommasi by the Livorno Ricovero di Mendicita’, for its Benefactors’ Hall.    

The Unification of Italy, with the abolition of the free port, caused serious damage to Livorno’s economy, already declining. The recovery began in 1865, with the state concession of the San Rocco shipyard to the Sicilian engineer Luigi Orlando. Thanks to the modernity and size of the installations and shipyard, the extraordinary building capacity and the large orders for military and merchant ships, the Fratelli Orlando Shipyard quickly became the linchpin of the Livorno economy, for the number of people it employed (in 1887, it employed 1500-2000) and for the spin-off industries.    

In 1858, Giuseppe Gambaro took over a small foundry that soon became the Officina di Costruzioni e Fonderia Fratelli Gambaro: it made engines, presses, gates, and metal frames for the Vettovaglie Market roof. In 1886, the Società Metallurgica Italiana built a modern factory in the Torretta district, which produced 4000 tons of copper and brass items a year by 1887, with 500 workers. In 1887 Livorno had 11 metalworking and mechanical factories with 703 workers, increasing to 1600 workers by 1902.    

At the start of the 20th century, in line with the rapid process of the country's industrialisation, Livorno was becoming a specialised industrial centre in the naval-mechanical sector: Cantiere Orlando was one of the most important in Italy; in the metalworking sector, Livorno was the fifth most important city. After a century, as the factories were slowly sold or closed, with the Shipyard also closing in 2002, there is now very little industry in Livorno.     

[Taken from Work path, by Sara Bruni, in the Fattori Civic Museum in Livorno: works, paths, links. Guide to the educational project by Antonella Gioli, Sillabe s.r.l. Livorno, 2016]

Esplora l'itinerario

  • In the footsteps of the traditional crafts
    History
  • Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum
    Museo
    • The olive harvest
      Opera
    • Charcoal burners or Maremma labourers
      Opera
    • Rope makers
      Opera
    • Maremma Herds
      Opera
    • Livorno Rag women
      Opera
    • The market of Livorno
      Opera
    • Allegory of Work
      Opera
  • Pinacoteca Carlo Servolini
    Museo
    • Carlo Servolini: I funari, 1920 ca.
      Opera
    • Carlo Servolini, Risicatori livornesi, 1940
      Opera
    • Anchise Picchi L’incendio degli sterpi, 1959
      Opera
    • Anchise Picchi, Falciatori, 1960
      Opera
    • Anchise Picchi La fienaiola, 1963
      Opera
  • Museum of life and work
    Museo
    • Antique plough
      Opera
    • Filter for must
      Opera
  • Work Museum
    Museo
    • Big machinery
      Opera
    • Daily life
      Opera
  • Antique carpenter's shop
    Tappa
    • Work tools
      Opera
    • Work tools
      Opera
  • Mining Museum
    Museo
    • Machinery and tools
      Opera
    • Life in the mine
      Opera
  • Alberese Estate
    Tappa
    • Horseback Butteri
      Persona
    • Maremma Herds
      Opera
    • Saddlery
      Opera
  • Forgotten Memories and Shipwrights
    Tappa
    • Shipwrights
      Opera
    • Model
      Opera