222 years after the Convention of Alessandria (15 June 1800), the peace treaty resulting from Napoleon’s victory over the Austrians, forced to retreat east beyond the Mincio river, the Generalissimo returned to Marengo yesterday 7 May for the overture of the exhibition “Il Volto del Comando” (“The face of command”) set up on the noble floor of Villa Delavo.
The reduction scale to reconstruct the scenography of the battle of Marengo on the model of the first modern historical re-enactment: the exhibition of sixty figures of Napoleonic officers at the Marengo Museum intensifies the bond between remote space-time dimensions and enriches the cultural proposal promoted along the museum itinerary.
The figure enhances the magnificent finishing of uniforms (boots, gloves, headgear) and horse tack to give depth to the brave leaders framed by artworks of two-dimensional portrait painting. The six-centimetre miniature, moulded by the sculptor Pier Sergio Allevi and painted by the painter Danilo Cartacci, combines the greatness of the Napoleonic saga with the current days and infuses vigour to the recurrence of symbolic dates and places. Through the section of three-dimensional portraits, we can also appreciate three models of Joachim Murat (commander at the battle of Marengo) which were obtained from prestigious Italian private collections. The ribbon was cut by the authorities Gianfranco Cuttica di Revigliasco (Mayor of Alessandria), Maurizio Sciaudone (Provincial Councillor delegate to the Polo di Marengo), Cristina Antoni (president of “Costruire insieme”).