The Fourth Estate — Pellizza da Volpedo
Interpreting the Italian painter’s masterpiece.
Painting and vindication have almost always gone hand in hand.
Not always with the same force because the river of history is a succession of fluctuations and synergies that come and go. But even in the most challenging moments, world criticism appeared in the arts.
Despite his bourgeois origins, the Italian painter Pellizza da Volpedo was permanently affiliated with the workers’ movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was convinced that what he called the Fourth Estate (the proletariat) was unstoppable and inevitable.
And he wanted to capture it in what, for many, is his most remarkable work, The Fourth Estate. If we look closely at the painting, we can see a group of workers preparing to start a march or a strike. They are centered in the middle of the composition. Altogether, only three figures are in front, which is nothing more than an individual representation of what makes up the proletariat.
The important thing is that they are all at the same height, no one stands out, and together they face the struggle. It is a very choral composition, with a large number of people grouped and all painted in an individualized way.
