Refugees from a Burned Village (The Village Fire)

Domenico Induno, a celebrated painter of "genre scenes," pieces together the moving and dramatic moments that follow a fire in a small village in this large painting, mindful, perhaps, of the oppression suffered by the people of Lombardy at the hands of the Austrian troops following the failure of the Risorgimento riots in 1848.
Dense smoke and flames thicken in the background, while the figure of a robust young man attempting to save an older man, a priest blessing a poor house where a woman prays intently, and a mother and son crying over the remains of their furniture and dishes, having survived the tragedy, can be made out among the characters. The detailed narrative reaches its peak in the center of the scene, where the suffering figure of a young dying boy, lying helplessly on a makeshift bed, wrapped in white, red, and green blankets can be seen: a metaphorical announcement of the death of the Italian dream.