What is the Risorgimento, and what is its significance today?
The Risorgimento is the complex historical, political, and cultural process – not unrelated to the other nineteenth-century revolutions – that, by involving different strata of society for the first time, led to the creation of a unified state in Italy. A thorough critical reading can finally overcome a celebratory vision of the Risorgimento and highlight the start of a path of modernization and democratization of the country, certainly not without tensions and contradictions.
Today, it is essential to reflect on the role of historical narratives, their influence in the construction of so-called national identities, and the political use of Risorgimento vocabulary, often used only in conjunction with certain political or sporting events. A rethinking must also concern the tangible and intangible heritage of the Risorgimento, which perhaps appears all too musealized, making it seem even more "distant" from today's life.
Why is the object granted for exhibition representative of the Risorgimento today? What is its evocative and testimonial power today?
In 1848, Leonardo Andervolti painted a tricolor flag to be raised on the highest point of the Osoppo fortress, where 350 patriots had barricaded themselves, determined to resist the Habsburgs. Therefore, the Osoppo Banner, an emblem of the Risorgimento in Friuli, represented a direct visual affront to the Austrians, capable of reaffirming – with the help of the Savoy – the Italian character of the symbols (the Lion of Saint Mark and the Visconti coat of arms) and the territories of Lombardy-Venetia. Significantly, to intertwine the values that make up the motto of the garland, Andervolti chose to represent the common bindweed, a weed that has become a metaphor for the resilience of the besieged men, women, and children.
Far more than the bombing of Udine and the burning of Bagnària in the same year of 1848, therefore, the events of Osoppo have shaped the identity narrative of Friuli, a synthesis of proud autonomism and free adherence to the unitary Italian State. Today, in the current peaceful integration between European peoples, this banner evokes emotions that allow us to reflect on the heroism, errors, and horrors of the past.
Fabio Franz, Curator | Museo del Risorgimento (Civici Musei) of Udine – Elisa Baccini, Research Fellow | DIUM (University of Udine)
