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 1948, 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. The Futurist Manifesto praised Carrà's adaptation of Pablo Picasso’s Cubist techniques in the piece. Critics have noted compositional similarities between The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli and Paolo Uccello's work The Battle of San Romano.

History

thumb|Carrà in 1912, in front of the [[Le Figaro newspaper building in Paris.]]

In 1906, anarchist Angelo Galli was killed on the eve of an Italian general strike. The strike had been called after a section of the Milanese Royal Guard fired upon a group of protestors, killing one and injuring eight. Galli was a major organiser of the strike, and was killed on May 10, 1906, after being confronted and stabbed by security guards of the Macchi and Pessoni factory. Galli was alongside anarchists Enrico Recalcati and Carlo Gelosa, and the trio were on their way to a picket. His funeral was planned for May 13, 1906.

The Italian state feared that his funeral would become a de facto political demonstration. In the event, hundreds of people attended, monitored by police on horseback.

Carrà in his autobiography would incorrectly attribute Galli's death to the Italian general strike of 1904.

In 1912, the piece was purchased by Borchardt, a German art collector, and displayed in the Galerie Der Sturm, in Berlin. The piece was then sold again in 1914 to Franz Kluxen. By 1920, the piece had been obtained by Herwarth Walden and was displayed again in the Galerie Der Sturm. Between 1920-1948, the piece was purchased from Der Sturm by Paul Citroen. In 1947, the piece was first displayed in New York City's Museum of Modern Art, where it was then bought by the museum the following year. The piece was obtained through funding provided by the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest and has remained with the Museum of Modern Art to this day. The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli is widely considered to be Carrà's most influential piece.

Description

The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli was composed at the height of Carrà's futurist phase. The subject of the work is the funeral of Galli. 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, seemingly engaged in a fight. These figures are illuminated by two light sources emanating from the sun and the coffin. The illumination of Galli's coffin draws focus both to his centrality in the painting and his importance in the 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. Additionally, the rounded bodies and overlapping lines gives the effect of movement.

Hungarian poet Lajos Kassák wrote a dramatic prose account of the painting in A Tett, a Hungarian arts magazine, in November 1915. In the account, Kassák gave a retelling of the event from the perspectives of the anarchists present. This piece, alongside Kassák's poems calling for pacifism during World War I, led to his work being confiscated by Hungarian authorities and his art being banned from publication.

References

  • The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli in the MoMA Online Collection
  • Carlo D. Carra anarkhistatemetés című képe alá- Archive