L'arte commemorativa postbellica. Antonio Bortone da Ruffano e una sua opera inedita

After First World War, in all the European and world countries involved, including Italy, many efforts had origin and in consequence statues, plaques, funerary stelae, monuments and sights were built everywhere in order to remember the soldiers died. In the world nations, celebrations, remembrance days were established; the cult of the fallen heroes became a political and civic programme; private and public memory were considered as a unique phenomenon. In the contest of these remembrance monuments, we find the statue called The Girl Knitting For the Front, made by Antonio Bortone (1844-1937), a famous artist who was born in Ruffano but lived mainly in Florence. This white Carrara statue is now in the town of Christchurch, New Zeland, and for the first time it is studied in this essay. Through the New Zeland press and a detailed research about Bortone's production and his personal and professional relationships, we try to recreate the origins of the statue and its long trip around the world.