A watercolour print documents one of Diotti’s masterpieces in historical painting. The painting was realized for the first time in 1836 for the private collection of a very important citizen in Casalmaggiore named Luigi Chiozzi. Later, it was exhibited at the Brera Picture Gallery, where it received many excited comments from the critics.The subject is permeated by the nationalistic feeling typical of the Resurgence Period that Diotti himself shared so much that, a few years later, when he came back to Casalmaggiore, he decided to make a bigger version of the painting. He died before finishing the painting, which remained incomplete and became property of the municipality of Casalmaggiore in 1926.
The first, smaller version (56x82cm) is still property of the Brera Picture Gallery and is exposed in the Modern Art Gallery in Milan. The second version (265x375cm) is still adorning the Council Room of Casalmaggiore’s City Hall, perfectly fitting in the decoration context dating early 1900s.
Compared to the first version, Diotti corrected some details such as the drapery that covers the table – remade without hemming – or some historical inaccuracies he was scolded about: indeed, he turned the document to be signed from a book – considered too modern – into a piece of parchment.
The action takes place in a gothic room, with tombstones on the walls and statues. The room is dominated by the statue of Pope Alexander III, who wrote a pontifical edict in 1167 with which he gave authorization to the Abbot of Pontida Abbey to summon all the representatives of the Lombard Communes against the Emperor Frederick I. Among all these characters who chose to promise each other help and support in order to forget all the rivalries and unify together founding the “Lega Lombarda”, Diotti chose to underline the gestures of the Count Bongo, ambassador of Bergamo, whose daughter was raped by Frederick I and killed herself for the shame: the father shows a knife as a sign of protest. A friar seems to tell him and the ambassador of Crema – particularly outraged because Frederick I had destroyed his beautiful city a few years earlier – to calm themselves because of the Catholic principles that forbid personal vengeances. Shortly thereafter, in 1176, the Lega Lombarda army would defeat Frederick I in the Legnago Battle. Later, in 1182, the Costanza Peace was formulated, which basically set free all the Italian Communes and gave them the possibility to write their own laws and to have their own army.
Some scholars doubt the historic validity of the Pontida congress, believing that it is a fake created in the 1800s to support the Resurgence spirit and the national wholeness. However, such controversy only deepens the meaning that Diotti had to attribute to the choice of this iconography.
The large painting is exhibited in the Council Room of Casalmaggiore's City Hall (open to the public each morning, from Monday to Saturday and also n the afternoon on Thursday)
