An exhibition dedicated to the tormented genius and painter Antonio Ligabue on display at Complesso del Vittoriano.

Ligabue’s life was blighted by poverty and illness. His Italian step-father struggled to accept him and at nine months old he was given to a Swiss-German couple to be raised. His birth mother and three siblings later died of food poisoning and his strained relationship with his adoptive family eventually led to his expulsion from Switzerland in 1919.

The exhibition separates Ligabue’s work into three periods, the first dealing with what happened following his move to Italy. After experiencing such rejection from people, Ligabue related more easily to animals. In his early work he begins to use them to express his feelings towards mankind.

In The Hunt, for example, we see a wild-eyed leopard about to sink its teeth into its antelope prey. As the exhibition continues, the animals become more aggressive and the paintings more violent.

During the final years of his life Ligabue enjoyed some critical success although his work continued to express his melancholy and misfortune. Self-portrait with scarecrow, which stands at the entrance of the exhibition, is a mirror of the anguish he felt throughout his disadvantaged life.