Maurizio Valenzi

Arrest of Gennaro Serra di Cassano, 1989, mixed media on canvas, 40×50 cm

The cycle Images from two revolutions: Paris 1789 - Naples 1799 arises from a commemorative need - the bicentenary of the French Revolution - but is mainly dedicated to the Neapolitan Republic of 1799. It takes place at a crucial moment in Valenzi's life. In fact, in 1989 his term in the European Parliament ends and in him the mood, resulting from the closure of a phase, adds to the disillusionment of the enlightened dream about Naples ("There is no more Lauro, but laurism continues"). 

These works of historical theme are imbued with an inexhaustible political passion and a lucid pessimism, which were exhibited at the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg in 1989 for the exhibition Tribute to the French Revolution, together with the works of Armando De Stefano. 

In the Arrest of Gennaro Serra di Cassano, there is a historiographical intent of reconstruction. It is a work in which the politician and the artist overlap in a non-ideological way, but with a strong sentiment in which the scissors between what has been and what could have been constitute an essential underlying note.