Portrait of Tullo Massarani

Tullo Massarani (1826-1900), Mantua, writer, poet, art critic, politician, belonging to a Jewish family of ancient origins and of very high cultural merits (one of his ancestors risked spending on defending the books threatened with destruction by the Santo Uffizio), receives from the family a very high level education (his master of painting is Domenico Induno), then graduating in law; initially Mazzinian, he later pragmatically accepted the Savoy monarchy, dedicating himself actively to political life first as a parliamentarian then as a senator.