View of Piazza della Vetra in Milan

The work shown at the 1833 Esposizione di Belle Arti di Brera is a rare example of Giuseppe Elena’s pictorial output. In fact, the fame of this artist, art critic and lithographer derives mainly from his intense activity as an engraver, specialised in perspective views and the reproduction of the most famous works by the major artists of the period from Pelagio Palagi to Giovanni Migliara and Francesco Hayez. Piazza della Vetra that takes its name from the waters of the canal known as Vetra, which come directly from the River Olona, was formerly used as the square where the executions of the condemned from the lower classes took place, and it was only in 1814 that it became Piazza delle Erbe or the marketplace. This perspective view, dominated by the apse of the architectural complex of the ancient church of San Lorenzo, is enlivened by various scenes from everyday life, following the model of “urban painting” then in vogue and established by Giovanni Migliara. The stalls are set up around the canal, now earthed in, and surrounded by middle-class and working-class people and soldiers, while a procession of the faithful is crossing the little bridge and moving towards the dilapidated wooden houses on the extreme right of the scene. The compositional structure, with the vanishing point slightly off centre at the far end of the square, invites the viewer’s gaze to travel through the small crowd of figures, between the walls and the canal, and enter the neighbourhoods of Milan with their typical narrow streets that can be seen in the distance. The artist made an engraving of this painting in 1838 for the text by Cesare Cantù entitled, Lombardia pittoresca o Disegni di ciò che la Lombardia chiude di più interessante per le arti, la storia, la natura, levati dal vero da Giuseppe Elena, accentuating the topographical aspect of the view and giving less importance to the scenes. The decision to focus on the architecture – to meet the demands of the book which describes some of the most typical places in Lombardy – was to become a constant feature of Giuseppe Elena’s artistic production and critical thought in the 1840s, unlike Angelo Inganni’s oeuvre, which was characterised by urban views full of scenes of contemporary life in a rich anecdotal vein.