Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Toy soldiers in art No. 15

 


Found this illustration in a book I'm reading , it's by Gioacchino Toma and portays Piccoli Patrioti (patriotic children) and was painted in1862 . The children are obviously fans of Garibaldi as they are firing on what seems to be a Papal flag and there is a print of Garibaldi on the wall behind them . The kneeing lad seems to be firing a cannon ! - I wonder how many accidents were caused by the use of real gunpowder ? . It's hard to make out what type of toy soldiers are being used.


Another one I found , no toy soldiers but the yoiung patriots are gazing at portraits of Garibaldi and I think Victor Emmanuel II - by the same artist ?



14 comments:

  1. Excellent pictures Tony! These kids are well-armed and definitely support Garibaldi!!

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  2. Splendid artwork Tony…
    Don’t you just miss the days when children could happily play with fire arms, cannons and gunpowder…

    All the best. Aly

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  3. What lovely pictures, I have never come across them before and they are very nice indeed.

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  4. Heart warming paintings. I doubt that they are the same artist since the signatures look quite different as do the styles. I also suspect that the date on the first painting refers to the subject matter rather than the date of the painting since this was the age of the flat, long before hollow casting was invented.

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    1. It's hard for me to tell the type of figures they are , the date 1862 appears in the bottom left hand corner.

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  5. NIce - and clearly ib favour of Garibaldi, the red Kepis are a big clue!

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  6. Attitudes were very different back then and early indoctrination was clearly the norm. Perhaps the modern trend for non-historical gaming is a good thing.

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  7. You are correct, the second painting is "Sons of the people" by Gioacchino Toma, 1862

    ref.: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/sons-of-the-people-gioacchino-toma/sQFXSucnndpMpA

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