Francesco Hayez, Imelda de’ Lambertazzi
Francesco Hayez is one of the leading figures of Italian Romantic painting. The work on display here combines the precision of historical reconstruction with the vibrant emotional intensity of the characters, drawing on a tragic medieval account set in 13th-century Bologna.
The story recounts the impossible and clandestine love affair between Imelda, a member of the noble Ghibelline Lambertazzi family, and Bonifacio Geremei, a member of the opposing Guelph faction. A ruthless rivalry that echoes the Shakespearean myth of Romeo and Juliet. Legend has it that Bonifacio, having secretly entered his beloved’s home, was discovered and stabbed to death by her brothers with a poisoned weapon. Imelda, in a desperate attempt to save his life, sucked the poison from the wound, only to die herself from poisoning in the young man’s arms. Hayez does not depict the bloody moment of the murder. Bonifacio, wrapped in his cloak, tenderly clasped Imelda’s hand whilst trying to persuade her to flee with him.
The figure of Imelda, seated at the centre of the composition, captures the viewer’s emotional attention. Her face, framed by dark, straight hair, seems to break into an expression of sudden, stark terror. Her wide-open eyes do not look at her lover, but are directed towards the right-hand side of the canvas, distraught by the imminent danger. Right there, behind a heavy green velvet curtain, the menacing silhouettes of her brothers can be glimpsed in the shadows, ready to burst in and exact their revenge.
Through this calculated composition, the nineteenth-century female world is reflected in the medieval heroine, transforming the woman into a symbol of passion, a sacrificial victim of the political and familial upheavals of her time.
Hayez guides Italian art from Myth to Reality. He developed a style that embodies the Romantic ideal of painting concerned with states of mind, viewing every aspect of the external world as a mirror of the inner world. The painter drew upon the classical legacy founded on ideal beauty but, in keeping with the Romantic spirit, pushed it towards a new quest for knowledge, towards the discovery of truths that are essentially human and inner.