Italian Green Grand Tour

The Italian peninsula, extending in such a particular way, gave Federica Galli the opportunity of representing a variegated plant and vegetation mapping. And that is how a path made of more than sixty etchings representing as many plants, so significant for the Italian heritage and for all those that love Italy's landscape, took its first steps.

Larches, oaks, poplars, elms, these plants had no secrets for a young woman who grew up in the countryside, all along in love with trees at the point that, driven by her deep knowledge, from the representation of their skeleton she was able to show their spring and summer evolutions.

The plants' selection was a result of Mrs Galli's primeval passion for history and literature. Each plant bears a significant anecdote: historical episodes, legends of princesses, important botanical motivation, or unusual placement. Some of these plants are officially considered national monuments.

Mrs Galli's proverbial virtuosity in using the etching process allowed her to achieve some nocturnal settings or representations with the snow, element that the artist was able to depict with a balance that is unprecedented in the history of graphics.

The virtual journey begins with the alpine plants of Italy's nordic regions - Friuli, Alto Adige and Trentino -, then goes south towards her beloved Padan Plain, poetically seen through her unique and acute gaze. Then, illustrations of the fascinating plants of Liguria and Tuscany, up to reach Italy's heel, Puglia, without forgetting the islands, Sardinia and Sicily.

A prominent figure of the art of engraving in Italy, Federica Galli was born in 1932 in Soresina – a village just outside Cremona. She began engraving in 1954 experimenting with etching, a technique she never abandoned for the rest of her life.  In 1966 she began to embark on a densely packed programme of cultural trips that took her to the most important European capitals, and to countries where the art of engraving is less deeply rooted. This was also the year in which she matured the conviction that engraving was the technique in which she expressed herself most effectively and started to apply herself exclusively to this art form, producing over eight hundred different subjects. Between 1954 and 2008, Federica engraved over eight hundred plates with a focus on three principal themes: landscapes, trees and cityscapes. Her passion for nature, combined with a capacity to bring forth its most enchanting aspects, are revealed in over one hundred plates.  Federica Galli passed away on 6 February 2009 and entrusted her artistic legacy to a Foundation bearing her name, which was set up on 17 July 2009 in Milan.