Abandonded Bust

Somebody has abandoned the bust of Amedeo Modigliani on the sidewalk of Via Marradi.
Qualcuno ha abbandonato il busto di Amedeo Modigliani sul marciapiede di via Marradi.
Please put it back where it belongs...
Per favore rimettetelo dove dovrebbe stare...

Mazzini and a Beer

On Sunday morning it is easy to find empty bottles all around town. Even Giuseppe Mazzini got his own beer, and it is still half full. If you are curious about the missing C, please read C Eaters.

Link esterni: Giuseppe Mazzini (Wikipedia)
See also: C Eaters

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The Busts in the Council

Eight busts of famous Livornesi are hosted in niches along three walls of the City Council Chamber. The room goes back to the years after World War I and was not originally part of Town Hall proper. It was connected to the main building through a footbridge with a view and was completely refurbished in 1994. Until then the room was facing south, toward the side without busts.

Enrico Mayer (1802-1877) Pedagogist and writer	Angelica Palli (1798-1875) Writer
Carlo Bini (1806-1842) Writer and patriot	Enrico Pollastrini (1817-1876) Painter
Giuseppe Orosi (1816-1875) Chemist	Francesco Bonaini (1806-1874) Philologist and palaeographist
Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804-1873) Politician and writer	Vincenzo Malenchini (1813-1881) Soldier and politician

See also: Town Hall - Footbridge with a View - City Council
External links: Enrico Pollastrini - Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (Wikipedia)

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Artusi's Minestrone

Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) was an Italian businessman and writer, best known as the author of the cookbook “La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene” (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well). He was not a cook, but his merit was in codifying and classifying Italy’s great tradition of domestic cuisine, the result of so many regional and local varieties. His cookbook, often embellished with detailed prose about daily life and historical trivia, should be considered a unifying tool of sorts for the gastronomic and linguistic patrimony of our country.

Bust on the grave of Pellegrino Artusi, by Italo Vagnetti
Porte Sante Cemetery
San Miniato al Monte, Florence

“Of particular interest is the story told by Artusi himself regarding a bad experience which occurred during the summer in Livorno in 1855, when Artusi came in contact with cholera, the infective disease that in that era took many lives in Italy. Once in Livorno, Artusi went to a restaurant to have dinner. After eating minestrone, he decided to rent a room in the building belonging to one Domenici. As Artusi would later recount, he spent the whole night suffering from horrible stomach pains, which he blamed on the minestrone he had eaten. The next day, returning to Florence, he got the news that Livorno had been hit by cholera and that Domenici had been a victim. It was only then that he realized what had happened: it had not been the minestrone that made him ill, but the early symptoms of the disease. The event inspired Artusi to write an excellent recipe for minestrone.”

(The case of minestrone and cholera, Wikipedia)

External links: Pellegrino Artusi (Wikipedia) - Artusi's Minestrone Recipe (About Food)

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Grand Masters

In the park of Villa Fabbricotti we can find the busts of two preeminent Livornese Freemasons: Adriano Lemmi (Livorno, 1822–Florence, 1906) and Alessandro Tedeschi (Livorno, 1867–Saint-Loubès, 1940).

Adriano Lemmi, as Grand Master from 1885 until 1895, was able to reunite all the Masonic observances of the peninsula under the Grande Oriente d'Italia (Grand Orient of Italy).

With the advent of the Fascist Era, the Freemasonry was outlawed in Italy and the Grand Orient of Italy was reorganized in France where, in 1931, Alessandro Tedeschi became Grand Master in exile. During the war he was actively sought after by the Gestapo as a Jew, a Mason, and an anti-Fascist. He died in 1940, just before they were able to arrest him.

External links: Grand Orient of Italy

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Fattori in Florence

This bust of Giovanni Fattori, by the sculptor Fosco Tricca, is part of a monument to the Livornese painter on the wall of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (Academy of Fine Arts of Florence), in Via Battisti.

Since 1869 Fattori taught at the Accademia, where one of his late students was Amedeo Modigliani.

External links: Giovanni Fattori - Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze - Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)
See also: Chili Pepper & Macchiaioli - Cisternino di città - Mazzini & Fattori - Portrait of Giovanni Fattori

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Busts on the Roof

In Livorno you can fish fake Modigliani's heads from the bottom of a canal, but you could also find some even more mysterious sculptures on the roof of a building in Piazza Mazzini. A local legend says that these busts are dedicated to the wives of an unlucky man who lost them in a short time, one after the other.

Anyway, the busts don't really look feminine: the right one has even some kind of winged cap like the one of the Roman god Mercury.

The second bust is too worn to make out any detail. If the legend is true, this tribute notwithstanding, I guess the poor guy had some troubles trying to marry again.

See also: Modì's Heads - Looking at the Sea
External links: Mercury (Wikipedia)

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Modigliani Brothers

The bust of the respected politician Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani and the one of his brother, the world famous painter Amedeo Modigliani, are placed on different sides of the “Villa Fabbricotti” building. For once, we are pleased to reunite them...

Search labels: Modigliani
See also: Modigliani's Heads - Amedeo Modigliani - Modigliani's Tomb - Modigliani in Paris
External links: Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)

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Guglielmo Oberdan

Guglielmo Oberdan thinks: “I was a patriot and a martyr, but after 130 years I am tired of wearing a hangman's noose!”

See also: What Statues Think - What Leopold Is Thinking - What Time Is It? - Sad Nereid - Guerrino of Montenero - Fisherman's Thought - Horseback Thinking - Caged Emperor - Garibaldi's Doubt - A Ticket Too Much - Looking at the Sea

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Amedeo & Pietro

Amedeo Modigliani got a quite good location for his bust, at the end of the main avenue inside the park of “Villa Fabbricotti”.A few steps on the right, the poor Pietro Mascagni wasn't so lucky, he feels dirty and is overwhelmed by the graffiti in background.

Search labels: Modigliani
External links: Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)

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Looking at the Sea

Two busts on top a building facing Piazza Mazzini.I was not able to find anything about these sculptures.They stay up there, amid the aerials, watching the sea.

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Theme Day: Statues

Giuseppe Garibaldi, a statue by the sculptor Augusto Rivalta.A bust (which is not a statue) of Giuseppe Mazzini, now sadly hidden inside the “Fortezza Nuova”, closed to public since January 2009

See also: Garibaldi - Inside the Fortress - From the Fortress - Fortress with a Secret - C Eaters

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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Wrongheaded

Last week, in a comment, Julie of Sidney Eye asked me why there aren't preminent female figures in the statues and monuments of Livorno. I checked on books and lists and found a lonely statue inside our Library in “Villa Fabbricotti”, but something else I read made me blush.
In a post titled Four Musketeers I peddled my wishful thinking about four busts in the same park, which I wrongly identified as the Dumas characters.
Poring over the list of the statuary inside the park I found four entries of heads of Grand Dukes, salvaged from a “palazzo” in “via Grande” destroyed in the last war.
The Grand Dukes are: “Ferdinando I”, “Cosimo I”, “Cosimo II” and “Gian Gastone”, listed as marble busts by a Fancelli from Siena. I have matched a known portrait with the relative statue.

“Ferdinando I de' Medici” (Porthos)

“Cosimo II de' Medici” (Aramis)

“Cosimo III de' Medici” (Athos)

“Gian Gastone de' Medici” (d'Artagnan)

The supposed Musketeer's cross was simply the coat of arms of the Order of Saint Stephen, founded by “Cosimo I”, and clearly visible in the first image, the famous statue of “Ferdinando I” part of the “Four Moors” monument.
Please forgive my ignorance and have some fun at me, but I am very sad to have lost forever my unique and beloved Musketeers statues for some common heads of Florentine Grand Dukes.

Salesiani

The “Sacro Cuore” (Sacred Heart) is the church of the Salesian compound. It was built after the First World War in the new quarter of the Stazione (Railway Station) by the architect Torello Macchia and consecrated in 1928. In 1932 the church became a regular Parish of the Diocese of Livorno and is commonly known as “I Salesiani” (The Salesians).The church has no bell tower but only what is called in Italian a “campanile a vela” (literally sail-shaped belfry). I don't know the equivalent English architectural term: I have found that in French is campenard and in Spanish espadaña.A bust of Don Tommaso Masera, the founder of the “Opera Salesiana” in Livorno, is placed in a small garden on the side of the church.

Four Musketeers

This is a quiz, but I do not know the answer. In the park of “Villa Fabbricotti” near a building which hosts the “Biblioteca dei ragazzi” (Children's Library) you can find these statues, partially hidden in a secluded spot.
I remember them from when I was a boy prowling the park and snubbing the library. After few years and many books I learned that they represented the Three Musketeers, which obviously were four.
Inside the park there are statues of the likes of Modigliani, Mascagni, Carducci, but these four were the only I knew and I cared for. These are not great work of art, but this was and is beyond my interest.
What about the quiz? I simply can't remember which statue represent each one of the Musketeers. I could easily place one, maybe two, but I'm not sure. Anybody willing to help?

With informations and sound logic Malyss has persuaded me that the statues are: d'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis and Porthos. Thanks to her and to everybody who has commented, trying or not an answer.

Latest update: everything said above is wrong, please read our Wrongheaded post setting the record straight.

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani was born on July 12, 1884, when Livorno was a thriving commercial port and also a refuge for those persecuted for their religion. His great-great-grandfather was a Jew who had immigrated to Livorno in the 18th century as a religious refugee. His father Flaminio, a money-changer, went bankrupt, forcing his family to live in poverty. Amedeo's birth probably saved the family from certain ruin because an ancient law stated that creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. When bailiffs entered Modigliani's home, with his mother Eugenia just into labour, the family piled their most valuable assets on top of her's bed, saving most of them.
The bust in the first photo is placed at the main entrance of Villa Fabbricotti, a park which also hosts the main local library. The plaque is outside the still existing house in Via Roma, now a private museum, and says:

Here received the gifts of
life, genius, virtue
the painter
Amedeo Modigliani
The Municipality of Livorno
in the 75th anniversary of the birth
July 12, 1959

Life and genius are certain, but it seems absurd to me to call our Amedeo a man of “virtue”...

Search labels: Modigliani
External links: Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)

C Eaters

As a matter of fact the Livornesi eat their Cs. It is part of a phonetic phenomenon called Tuscan gorgia which, in very simplistic terms, substitutes some Cs in a word with nothing. A phrase that still awes outsiders is the anecdotic local rendition of “Coca-Cola con la cannuccia” (Coca-Cola with a straw), which would sound something like this: “òa-òlah òla annoochah”, killing five Cs in a row. Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) was a patriot and philosopher, whose efforts helped bring about the modern Italian state. Here is a bust dedicated to him by “Livorno repubblicana” (Republican Livorno) in the square carrying his name. And, as you can see, somebody ate the C of “repubblicana”.

External links: Tuscan gorgia - Giuseppe Mazzini (Wikipedia)

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Wilhelm Oberdank

Wilhelm Oberdank, who italianicized his name to Guglielmo Oberdan, was an Italian irredentist executed in 1882 after a failed assassination attempt on the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.
Just before his hanging he cried “Viva l'Italia” (Long live Italy!), estabilishing his reputation as a martyr of the Italian National cause. Statues of him were erected in towns and cities throughout unified Italy.
You can see this bust, sculpted by Ermenegildo Bois in 1928, in piazza dei Mille (The Thousand square), of Garibaldine memoirs.