Francesco Campogalliani

Francesco Campogalliani (Ostellato 1870 - Mantua 1931) was the most famous Italian puppeteer of the 19th and 20th centuries. On the death of his father (Cesare, 1830 - 1885), he began working with his brother, Arturo, until 1890, when they decided to follow different paths.
Francesco had the merit of reforming puppet theatre, bringing it into full-size theatres and presenting it with a professional rigour which disdained improvisation and laid the foundations for a solid culture of the puppeteer.

He spoke many dialects perfectly and it is said that he was able to play up to eight characters at the same time, each with their own linguistic inflection.

He took his theatre to almost every region of central and northern Italy, even going beyond the border as demonstrated by the shows performed in Rovereto before 1915.

His staging, which usually consisted of a long show followed by songs, or ballets, or dialect poems were advertised through such no-nonsense leaflets as: "Three acts of military, burlesque, grotesque, sly, hot ... and fresh.", Or with warnings such as: “In the event of a fire, the public is not obliged to remain in the theatre.”

Many of his colleagues imitated his style and Italo Ferrari remembered Francesco as his "maestro".

The heads of some of his puppets were made by the Paduan Ettore Saccomanni and were characterized not only by the excellence of the sculpture, but also by the vividness of their pupils, which was obtained by using pins with a glass head.

A very interesting piece, a rare example of a special effect in puppet theatre, was the Great Devil (in the collection classified as "Oracle") which lit up from the inside: the light came out of the mouth and eyes which contained pieces of red glass thus giving an ominous infernal aura.

One of the documents in the collection that best testifies to Francesco Campogalliani’s poetics is the script Da Berlino… a Mantova, a play on the First World War divided into three acts on, respectively: Before the War, During the War, After the War.
Before the War describes the network of relationships that Wilhelm II (the Kaiser) wove with his future allies, and satirizes the various protagonists through physical characteristics (like the nose of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria) and behavioural traits, such as Wilhelm’s lust for power, which led him to directly threaten “good old God”, He too among the characters;

During the War opened with a curtain that rose to reveal a backdrop on which the word CENSURE stood out;

After the War was set in the Campogalliani theatre where Francesco (he too a puppet!), intending to stage a show about the First World War, tries to convince someone among his actors (Fasolino, Sandrone and the main masks of the Commedia dell’Arte) to impersonate the Kaiser, but only receives a series of negative responses peppered with insults; at a certain point there is a knock at the door and it is Wilhelm II who, on the run and in search of a refuge, offers himself as an actor to play himself: recognized by the other puppets, he is mocked, offended, cursed, beaten and dragged into hell by the Devil.

A backdrop made up of two parts is linked to this script, representing a painting entitled Il Vaticinio which Wilhelm shows to his allies.
In the backdrop, above the cannon, from the left are represented: Ferdinand I, Wilhelm II (the Kaiser), Franz Joseph, Mehmed VI; below the cannon, from the left: personifications of Russia, Britain, and France. The sagging boot next to the latter represents Italy.

The upper part of the backdrop was changed according to who the interlocutor of Wilhelm ll was. The following image relates to the dialogue with Mehmed VI.

Curiosity:
• During the conversation between Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph of Austria it is rather clear that for Francesco Campogalliani the assassination of the Archduke Francesco Ferdinando perpetrated in Sarajevo on June 28,1914, and taken by Austria as an excuse to start the war, was ordered by Wilhelm II with the approval of Francesco Giuseppe.

Curiosity:
• The caricatures of the various characters present in Il Vaticinio are painted taking as a model those that circulated in the satirical magazines of that time such as Il 420, which was also the name of the cannon (in reality it was a howitzer) under which were crushed the powers of the Treaty and Italy.
• The part of Il Vaticinio relating to the conversation between Wilhelm and Francesco Giuseppe is kept at the Polironiano Civic Museum of San Benedetto Po (nr. Mantua).