Melancholy is an oil-on-canvas painting created during 1841-1842 by Francesco Hayez (Italian Romantic painter, 1791-1882).
The painting, measuring 138,6 x 104cm, is part of the collection of the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan.
The work, executed between 1840 and 1842, is full of erudite references to the Italian and European pictorial tradition: from reflections on the 16th-century painting of the Veneto exemplified by the treatment of the clothing, which echoes the textural effects of Savoldo and Titian, to the citation of Flemish still lifes.
Painted for Marquis Filippo Ala Ponzoni, a patron of the arts, patriot and follower of Giuseppe Mazzini, this picture owed its popularity both to its outstanding quality and to its emblematic value, making it a symbol of the restlessness of Romanticism.
Francesco Hayez (Italian, 1791-1882) | Malinconia, 1841-1842 | Pinacoteca di Brera
