Napoleon returns to Elba

35 drawings by Silvan (Nano) Campeggi
dedicated to the emperor are on exhibit
from July 6th to September 15th, 2008.

The Emperor’s Island adds to its repertoire another important initiative dedicated to Napoleon. The City of Portoferraio and the Tuscan Archipelago Tourism Agency honours the 6th century Cosmopolis’s grand guardian of the sea with an exhibition of artwork by Silvano (Nano) Campeggi dedicated to the leader’s stay on the Island of Elba from May 3rd, 1814 to February 26th, 1815.
Through September 15th, you can admire the 35 original drawings inspired by Napoleon and created by the most important Italian illustrator of film posters, whose artwork is on display in some of the most prominent museums throughout Europe and the United States. The artist himself explains the show as “a collection of Napoleonic costumes and characters, a way of bringing that short-lived by spectacular period back to life, looking back at those times with serenity and a bit of complacent sentiment.” Indeed, the exhibit retraces Napoleon’s path in Elba: the Villa dei Mulini, the sloping banks of Portoferraio, the Villa di San Martino, the initial explorations of Elba by the Florentine artist.
Campeggi has rendered the Hollywood stars of the last decade of cinematography both familiar and legendary with his 3000 film posters, 64 of which have won Oscars. He considers this collection of works “a motor for giving recognition to Elba, which has always inspired me, for how you can see yourself between land, sky and sea, and how it provides an indescribable backdrop for nature and history that, here, unite in harmony.”