ALLEGORY OF MUSIC VINCENZO RASORI (BOLOGNA 1793 - FLORENCE 1863), Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 36 cm, Inscriptions: VRASORI 1847. In good condition   The canvas depicts a young female figure crowned with laurel, holding an arrow in one hand and a tuning fork in the other. The presence of the tuning fork, an unusual object rarely seen in old paintings, allows the iconography of the work to be identified as an allegory of Music. The painting, signed VRasori (Vincenzo Rasori) and dated 1847, is one of the peaks of the Bolognese painter, who does not fear comparisons in style and quality with his more famous canvas depicting Guglielmo Embriaco at the siege of Caesarea, created for Carlo Alberto of Savoy in 1846, now exhibited in the Royal Museums of Turin. The musical theme of the canvas is probably explained by Rasori's closeness to a giant of Western music who had trained in Bologna: Gioacchino Rossini (Pesaro 1792 - Paris 1868). The acquaintance between the painter and the great musician's family is evidenced by the portraits of Giuseppe and Anna Rossini, Gioacchino's parents, made by Rasori in the 1820s, now preserved in the Rocca Estense of Lugo di Romagna. Later, it was the famous composer who dedicated the hymn "È foriera la Pace ai mortali" to Vincenzo Rasori, first performed at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna on June 26, 1850.