Fernet-Branca Milano poster – Vintage Food & Drink poster – Leopoldo Metlicovitz
This is a reproduction of a poster created by the celebrated Italian illustrator, painter and poster artist Leopoldo Metlicovitz. It was created to promote the Fernet-Branca alcoholic drinks manufacturing company at the 1910 Exposición Internacional del Centenario in Argentina. The company had already begun to export their Italian brand of fernet to Argentina in 1907. However, never a company to miss an opportunty, they commissioned Metlicovitch to produce a poster to advertise at the expo.
In his poster, Metlicovitz depicts an image of a young woman carrying an Argentinian flag. She is the allegorical personification of Argentina and represents liberty, republic and motherland. Unlike Brittania in England, Marianne in France or Italia turrita in Italy, she doesn’t have a name. She was however, important to the people of Argentina.
In Metlicovitz’s painting he has portrayed the female figure dressed in long, grecian-style robes. Her tunic has been made using the light blue and white triband and sun of the Official Ceremonial Flag of Argentina. Over her long flowing hair she is also wearing a red Phrygian cap or liberty cap which also appears on the Argentian coat of arms.
The Exposición Internacional del Centenario (Centennial International Exposition) was an exhibition held between May and November 1910 in Buenos Aires to commemorate the Centennial of the May Revolution in Argentina and the formation of the first local government on May 25, 1810. Metlicovitz has referenced the event by depicting the young woman standing on top of a banner, some weapons and a shield bearing the Spanish coat of arms. She is also depicted proudly holding a flagstaff bearing the Argentinian flag. To reinforce the message the artist has included an image of a angelic young boy standing on a low wall. In his right hand he is holding a Roman-style staff that reads Gloria or Glory. On the top of the staff is a gold statue of Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory.
In a nod to Italy’s own allegorical representative Italia turrita, the guardian angel is holding a torch just above the woman’s head. The Italian goddess has a star known as the Stella d’Italia that symbolises the shining destiny of Italy.Metlicovitz seems to have applied the same metaphor to the Argentinians.
To represent Fernet Brancas Argetinian export market, the artist has included an image of a transatlantic steamship and to the right he has depicted the hard-working locals the pick-me-up was aimed at. The Argentian market became so important to the Fernet Branca company they established a distillery in Buenos Aires in 1925.
Fernet-Branca posters
As early as 1886 the Fernet-Branca company published annual calendars with works by well-known artists. And in 1893 the company’s famous eagle-and-globe logo, which is still used on bottle labels today, was designed by Leopoldo Metlicovitz.
Fernet-Branca were soon to commission some of the best Italian and French poster artists of the time. The brancadistillerie website advises that artists including Giuseppe Amisani, Elio Stelminig, Osvaldo Ballerio, Achille Luciano Mauzan, Leopoldo Metlicovitz and Plinio Codognato are just some of the many artists that, starting from the penultimate decade of the 19th century, crossed paths with the Branca universe and forever helped define its visual heritage.
The 1909 Le Roi des Amers Fernet-Branca poster with its bright yellow background was created by Leonetto Cappiello. The King of Bitters advertising poster features a classic Cappiello character of a member of royalty wearing a tunic made up of bottles of the aperitif. A second poster created by Cappiello for the Branca brothers is adorned with an upright crocodile proudly holding a bottle of the renowned Aperitivo-Digestivo beverage aloft. Looking at the poster we’d swear the reptile is smiling gleefully!
One Fernet-Branca poster from around 1900 features Leopoldo Metlicovitz’s iconic eagle flying over a world globe with a bottle of alcohol in its talons. The vintage food & drink poster advertises the Amaro Tonico drink and is a later adaption of his original 1895 poster.
Fernet-Branca
The history of Fernet-Branca goes back to Milan, Italy in 1845. That was the year Bernardino Branca, who with his sons set up a business to manufacture their new beverage Fernet-Branca. Its first production factory was built in Corso di Porta Nuova in Milan, which employed more than 300 workers.
The alcoholic drink invented by Branca, a self-taught herbalist, is a fernet, or ‘bitter’ herbal liqueur. It was originally marketed as a pick-me-up and as a cure for worms, fever, cholera and menstrual pain. It was and still is typically served as an after-dinner drink intended to aid in digestion.
The Fernet-Branca recipe includes 27 herbs, roots and spices that make up its unique special formula. The complete Fernet-Branca formula is a closely guarded secret. However, the Branca Distillery website does give away that the digestif contains “Rhubarb from China, Gentian from France, Galanga from India or Sri Lanka and Chamomile from Europe or Argentina. It also explains other ingredients including linden (tiliae flos), iris, saffron, zedoary, myrrh and cinchona. Other sources have reported that its recipe includes aloe ferox (bitter aloe), cinchona, chocolate, quinine and angelica.
According to the Fernet-Branca page on Wikipedia, the company began exporting to Argentina in 1907, and in 1925 established a distillery in Buenos Aires. The drink became popular in the United States in 1919 when the prohibition laws banned the drinking of alcohol. Despite the liqueur having an alcohol content of 39, a higher alcoholic content than most other Amari drinks, Fernet-Branca instead was sold through pharmacies as a medicinal product!
