A beautiful serio-comic map drawn by Augusto Grossi (signature at lower left on the Spanish coast) published in Bologna in 1875 in the satirical magazine “Il Pappagallo”. It shows Europe with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the centre who, like a Saint Anthony the Abbot, “blesses” and appeases the various nations each represented by an animal.
In 1875, German diplomats and semi-official newspapers hinted that Germany might launch a war against France, which was rapidly recovering from its defeat by Prussia five years earlier. Rumours of war came and went and eventually led the Russian and British governments to warn Bismarck against war.
Augusto Grossi (1835 – 1919) was a painter, caricaturist and publisher active in Bologna in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna and participated in the exhibitions of 1855 and 1856. Grossi’s first caricature work was in the fortnightly Il Diavolo Zoppo, published with Leonida Gioannetti between 1863 and 1865. Later, in 1865, again with Gioannetti, he published a similar satirical newspaper, La Rana (1865 – 1912), known for its satirical monarchical comments on European politics. In 1873, Grossi left La Rana to publish his own magazine, Il Papagallo, which became famous for its refined and colourful caricatures printed in chromolithography depicting the emerging Germanic empire and the Russian and British empires as protagonists of the difficult Balkan game of the time. In 1876 on the wave of success, a French edition, Le Perroquet, appeared and in 1878 an English edition, The Parrot. Publications ceased on 23 May 1915 with Italy’s entry into the war. Augusto Grossi also collaborated with the Greek magazine Aristophanes, providing colour lithographs for 11 years. In 1910, Grossi donated his lithographic stones to the Archiginnasio in Bologna.
