A Funeral Song

In 1862 Venice was still ruled by Austria, while Milan and Turin belonged to the new Kingdom of Italy. Antonio Zona, a Venetian who had moved to Milan around 1860, sent this canvas that year to the exhibition of the Promotrice delle Belle Arti in Turin, together with another called Contemplation. It was a success. Both King Victor Emmanuel II and the Promotrice itself considered buying it, and in the end the Ministry of Public Instruction acquired it. The painting holds the two sides of Zona's art, his devotion to the old Venetian masters, visible in the light, the colour and the warm patina, and the taste of his century for tender, melancholy subjects. It has been read as an allusion to the funeral of Count Cavour, who had died in June 1861.