"Risorgimento artistico". L'Ottocento di Enrico Somaré

This essay reconstructs Enrico Somaré’s (1889-1953) role in the intricate web of relationships between artists, critics and writers involved in the rediscovery of Italian 19th century painting between the two world wars, and attempts, by contextualising some of the Lombard critic’s texts and their reception – starting with the most famous and controversial, Primo Omaggio ai Pittori Italiani dell’Ottocento, published in 1925 in L’Esame – to understand their historical-critical and ideological motivations. Somaré’s output, largely devoted to painting, but also significantly to 19th century artistic literature, is thus reset against the background of a cultural milieu becoming increasingly right-wing in the context of Benedetto Croce’s influence over figurative criticism of the time and, specifically, at a turning point when effective dissent and critical methodology closely connected to the interpretation (and actualisation) of the Italian Unification, took on unexpected political significance.