One of the more important and interesting pieces from Alessandro Rossi’s industrial Schio is “The Spinner” (“La Tessitrice”) , by Milan artist Antonio Tantardini (1829-1879).

This piece was commisionated in 1870 by Alessandro Rossi for seven thousand Lire and with the request to represent the textile industry in the figure of a young woman holding a shuttle in her right hand.

The work’s symbolism aims to celebrate the ancient art of weaving, calling back to classical figures (like Penelope and Calipso), as well as medieval and renaissance representations of female figures working with wool.

Despite the Rossi family’s commitment to social issues and despite this being a representation of women working in the textile industry, we mustn’t forget that women were still paid much less than men at the time.

The statue, sculpted in marble, was realised for the entrance hall of Villa Rossi, where her whiteness would contrast with the dark boiserie: raised from the ground, she could be admired first and foremost as a female nude, in other words, as an element of decoration.

The Spinner was then placed, for a brief time, in the Palazzo dell’Intendenza di Finanza in Vicenza, finally returning to Schio, first at the Conte woollen mill and now in the hall of frescoes in Palazzo Fogazzaro.