National colours of Italy

The three colours were present in some historical events, such as; Other scholars have suggested the prefiguration of the Italian tricolour in pictorial works; in fact the clothes of some characters painted on the walls of Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, which date back to the Middle Ages, are green, white and red.

[8] The three colours of the Italian flag are cited, in literature, in some verses of canto XXX of the Purgatorio in the Divine Comedy, and this has fueled theories that would link the birth of the tricolour to Dante Alighieri.

They too are considered groundless by scholars,[9] as Dante in these verses did not think of a politically united Italy, but of the theological virtues, or rather of charity, hope and faith, with the last two being metaphorically symbolized in the Italian flag.

During his visit to London on 11 April 1864, Giuseppe Garibaldi was greeted by a throng of people at the train station, many of whom carried Italian flags.

[26] In 1868, two years after the Austrians departed Venice following the Third Italian War of Independence, the remains of statesman Daniele Manin were brought to his native city and honoured with a public funeral.

[28][29] The gondola carrying his coffin was decorated with bow "surmounted by the lion of Saint Mark, resplendent with gold", bore "the Venetian standard veiled with black crape", and had "two silver colossal statues waving the national colours of Italy".

The new specification was demonstrated on sample flags displayed at Palazzo Montecitorio; they had a darker tint than the traditional colours, described as having a deeper green, a red with "ruby hues", and ivory or cream instead of white.

[38] The values were revised after discussion, and in 2006 were decreed by law in Article 31 of Disposizioni generali in materia di cerimoniale e di precedenza tra le cariche pubbliche ("General provisions relating to ceremonial materials and precedence for public office", published 28 July 2006 in Gazzetta Ufficiale) for polyester fabric bunting to use the following Pantone Textile Colour System values:[39][40] The national colours are specified in the Constitution of Italy to be used on the Flag of Italy, a vertical tricolour flag of green, white, and red.

It is based on the square flag of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, on a field of blue charged with the coat of arms of Italy in gold.

), after Gabriele D'Annunzio had wanted to put a shield flag on the uniforms of Italian military commanders during a friendly match.

The oldest association of metaphorical meanings to the future Italian tricolour is ascribable to 1782, when the Milanese citizen Militia was founded, whose uniforms consisted of a green dress with red and white insignia; for this reason, in the Milanese dialect, the members of this municipal guard were popularly called remolazzit, or "small radishes", recalling the lush green leaves of this vegetable.

[57] Even white and red were common on Lombard military uniforms of the time:[58][57][59] the two colours are characteristic of the coat of arms of Milan.

[57][61] The green of the Italian tricolour was the only one to have, from its origins, an idealistic meaning: it symbolized for the Jacobins the natural rights, that is social equality and freedom.

[13] Hypotheses considered unreliable, and therefore rejected by historians, are the alleged metaphorical references to the tricolour contained in the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, in which the theological virtues, that is charity, hope and faith, with the last two which were then symbolized, without historical bases, in the Italian flag.

[63][65] For the adoption of greenery there is also the so-called "Freemasonry hypothesis": for this initiatory society green was the colour of nature, so much a symbol of human rights, which are naturally inherent in man,[58] as well as of flourishing Italian landscape; this interpretation, however, is opposed by those who maintain that Freemasonry, as a secret society, did not have such an influence at the time as to inspire Italian national colours.

[2] With the unification of Italy, and with the consequent extension of the Albertine Statute to the whole Italian peninsula, to the green, to the white and to the red, a fourth national colour was added, the Savoy blue, a distinctive chromatic tonality of the Italian ruling family, the House of Savoy; in particular, in the institutional sphere, it was included in the flag of the Kingdom of Italy on the contour of the royal coat of arms to set the red-and-white cross apart from the white and the red of the banner.

One of the stanzas of the military song Passa la ronda by Teobaldo Ciconi, which was composed in 1848, is linked to the three Italian national colours, and their idealistic meaning:[85] [...] We are the three-colored guards,Green, the hope of our choirs,White, the faith tight between us,Red, the plagues of our heroes.

Beyond the romantic subject, the work has a historical and political significance: Hayez, through the colours used (the white of the dress, the red of the tights, the green of the lapel of the cloak and the blue of the woman's dress), wants to represent the alliance that took place between Italy and France through the Plombières Agreement (21 July 1858), of a secret nature, which were the premise of the Second Italian War of Independence.

[87] Hayez's work was resumed three years later by Giuseppe Reina in his painting Una triste novella, in which the painter clearly composes a tricolour, juxtaposing a green box, a red shawl and the white skirt of the female figure represented.

[90]White shows that she is holy and purethe red that lends with blood to fightand that other colour that is grafted onto itwho never lacked the hope of misfortune.

... And the shaggy old Faunof the Palatine he called him by name,high crying, the first fallen heroof the three Rome[96]The prose of a short story by Grazia Deledda, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926,[97] is famous in which the three Italian national colours are recalled:[98] [...] As soon as he opened his eyes to the light of day, the little boar saw the three most beautiful colours in the world: green, white, red.

[...] A violent cloud enveloped him: he fell, closed his eyes; but after a moment he raised his short reddish eyelids and for the last time he saw the most beautiful colours in the world – the green of the oak, the white of the cottage, the red of his blood.

The three Italian national colours carved on the floor of the Palazzo delle Poste in Florence . After their appearance in Genoa on 21 August 1789, red, white and green gradually became part of the Italian collective imagination until they were represented in the most varied areas.
Dante and Beatrice by Carl Oesterley (1845), represented as described by Dante in canto XXX of the Purgatorio of the Divine Comedy . On the left, we can see Beatrice's green, white and red dress.
Panorama of Genoa in the early 19th century. Here the Italian tricolour cockade first appeared, and with it the Italian national colours.
The national cockade of Italy , on which the three Italian national colours made their debut in 1789
Flag of the Cispadane Republic , established on 7 January 1797. It was the first Italian tricolour flag.
The departure of the Mille expedition
The modern flag of Italy , a vertical tricolour flag of green, white, and red, adopted on 18 June 1946 ( 1946 Italian institutional referendum )
The Frecce Tricolori , with green, white, and red smoke trails, above the Altare della Patria in Rome
The most important offices of the Italian State have pinned on the jacket, during the military parade of the Festa della Repubblica celebrated every 2 June, a cockade of Italy .
The scudetto is worn on jerseys by the Italian sports clubs that win the annual championship of their respective sport in the previous season.
The Gran Paradiso , one of the most famous Italian mountains, located inside the Gran Paradiso National Park . Some interpretations would like the white of the Italian flag to be associated with the white snow of the Alps .
A foreshortening of Redipuglia War Memorial , with the tomb of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta in the foreground, nicknamed the Undefeated Duke for having reported numerous victories in the First World War without ever being defeated on the battlefield. [ 62 ] Some interpretations would like red of the Italian flag to be associated with the blood shed by Italian soldiers in the Wars of Italian Independence and Unification .
The Italy national football team
The Italian national colours, in the shape of an Italian flag and the standard of the president of the Italian Republic, on the presidential Lancia Flaminia . Their presence indicates that the president is on board.
Ferrari SF15-T , fielded in the 2015 Formula One season
Bobsleigh of the Italian national team
An apocryphal story claims that the Pizza Margherita is designed to honour the Italian national colours: red tomato , white mozzarella and green basil . [ 84 ]
Detail of The Kiss by Francesco Hayez (1859): the green colour shines through the man's sleeve and under the hand of the woman, whose blue dress has white trimmings. The tricolour is completed by the man's red trousers.
Leaves, flowers and berries of the strawberry tree , whose colors recall the Italian national colours: for this reason this bush is considered one of the National symbols of Italy .