3-034-546 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Presentation Of The Child Moses," by F. Barzeghi, of Milan, in the International Exhibition, 1871. 'We have engraved...one of the most approved works of sculpture, by a foreign artist. The graceful, unaffected, and very natural attitude of the Egyptian woman holding the babe in her arms has been noticed with just commendation. There is some reason to congratulate the Italians upon the improvement of their works in this branch of art since the Exhibition of 1862; but they do not seem to have made equal progress in that of painting. The uneasy political and social condition of the new kingdom, which gained possession of its destined metropolis scarcely a twelvemonth since, may be deemed to account for its backwardness in the fine arts, and for the utter barrenness of its literary genius. The world has a right...to expect that this highly favoured nation, with its abundance of mental gifts, and with its glorious mediaeval history, will shake off its disposition to indulge in the dolce far mente, and once more become the intellectual charmer of mankind. Thus alone will regenerate and enfranchised Italy recompense her neighbours for the cost of her independence, which has been indirectly made the occasion of two or three great European wars '. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.