Romanticism Gallerie D'italia and Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan 26Th
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Exhibitions Assessing the sheer range of the objects Walpole collected, with their rich contrasts of colour and texture and occasional strangeness, and appreciating the impact of their placement within these striking Gothic rooms as well as the unexpected harmony of the whole, requires that the display be experienced at a slow pace in order to absorb the complicated layering of objects, associations and aesthetics. The real achievement of the exhibition is the way in which it illuminates Walpole’s genius for creating antiquarian interiors of great originality, power, beauty and resonance. The furnished interiors of Strawberry Hill were, ultimately, works of art in their own right. 1 Publication: Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill: Masterpieces from Horace Walpole’s Collection. By Silvia Davoli. 112 pp. incl. numerous col. ills. (Scala Arts and Heritage, London, 2018), £12.95. ISBN 978-1–78551– 180–6. Romanticism Gallerie d’Italia and Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan relevance and broader impact of the 14. Nocturne Manzoni, one by Massimo d’Azeglio 26th October 2018–17th March Italian contribution. in Capri, by and Giuseppe Molteni (1835; Biblioteca Salvatore The exhibition is displayed across Fergola. 1843. Nazionale Braidense, Milan; cat. no.75) by sharon hecker the Gallerie d’Italia and the adjacent Canvas, 106 by and another by Francesco Hayez (1874; 131 cm. (Museo Museo Poldi Pezzoli, just steps away e Real Bosco di Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan; no.76), The exhibition under review, the from the Teatro alla Scala, where Capodimonte, are installed in the section dedicated first ever devoted to the art of Italian Italy’s greatest Romantic operas were Naples; exh. to portraiture. The enduring popularity Gallerie d’Italia, Romanticism, is a major achievement. performed. Giuseppe Verdi spent his Milan). of The Betrothed spills into the visual The curator, Fernando Mazzocca, has last years composing operas in a nearby arts in a section devoted to paintings assembled an impressive array of over hotel suite. As he lay on his deathbed, of scenes from the novel. two hundred paintings and sculptures, the Milanese spread hay on the street The twenty-one thematic rooms introducing audiences to visual art so that the noise of carriages would not across both venues create a series produced in Italy from the early to disturb his final moments. Given that of smaller exhibitions within the the mid-nineteenth century. Italy’s best-known contribution to the larger one. The themes suggest that A lavishly illustrated catalogue in Romantic period is opera, Romanticism Italian Romantic art shared similar Italian accompanies the show.1 opens with a series of headless concerns with the movements in other For its novelty alone, the mannequins posing on a staircase in countries: emotion, free expression, exhibition is timely and welcome. costumes from performances at La intuition over reason, adoration of Although individual works of art Scala. The operatic theme continues landscapes and natural phenomena from this period might be familiar throughout the exhibition, with music and celebration of past literary heroes to specialists, Italian Romanticism emanating from a room projecting and historical characters. In Italy, this as an artistic movement is unknown videos of Italian productions. took the form of elegies to the Alps, to most native as well as foreign The sense of the place’s history the Roman and Lombard countryside, museum visitors. This is because it is further enhanced by the fact Milan’s Navigli waterways and is omitted from the better-known that the street upon which both Venice, as well as views of Naples by European movements of French, exhibition venues are located is Via artists from the Scuola di Posillipo British and German Romantic art, Alessandro Manzoni, named after and Italian renditions of the Parisian to which numerous exhibitions the author whose novel The Betrothed Seine. Other sections are dedicated to have been dedicated. Such exclusion (1827) is an emblem of Italian literary Romanticism as a window onto the makes it difficult to gauge the Romanticism. Two portraits of world, with female bodies sacred and the burlington magazine | 161 | february 2019 151 EXHIBITIONS_FEB19.indd 151 17/01/2019 18:35 Exhibitions profane, portraits and depictions of Sculpture lovers will be thrilled Italian literary and artistic heroes such to find a central space devoted to as Leonardo, Torquato Tasso, Raphael such works in marble as Vincenzo and Dante. Vela’s robust Spartacus (no.146; Fig.15), Highlights of the show include an allegory of Italy’s struggle against rugged mountainous landscapes its Austrian oppressors. Lorenzo by the Turinese painter Giuseppe Bartolini’s intimate Faith in God Bagetti; Ippolito Caffi’s pictures of (1833–36; no.141) depicts a woman solar eclipses, snow and fog over seated humbly in prayer. These works Venice and his paintings of the encapsulate two aspects of Italian 1849 Austrian bombing of nearby Romanticism: patriotic action and Marghera; Angelo Inganni’s scenes of inner contemplation. The sculpture daily hustle and bustle around Milan’s section could have provided an Duomo; and Salvatore Fergola’s opportunity to examine Italian artists’ shimmering, melancholic Nocturne relationship with France. Bartolini, for in Capri (no.25; Fig.14). example, began his career in Jacques- Louis David’s atelier and had his portrait painted by Ingres. Another connection could be drawn with England: Raffaele Monti’s stunning 1845 Veiled Vestal (no.31; Fig.17) creates the illusion of seeing through a sheer marble veil. This work earned Monti a position as the leading sculptor for William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire; a version carved in 1846 is at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. In 1861, the Crystal Palace Art Union Below left overtly or covertly. The canvas of issued the work in Parian porcelain 15. Spartacus, Molteni’s Daughter of the guardian of by Vincenzo Vela. and it became one of the most popular 1847–50. Marble, the castle (1844; private collection; Parian busts ever made. 206 by 72.5 by 90 no.79) bears a bullet hole from the cm. (Museo d’arte Italian Romanticism’s della Svizzera Five Days in 1848, when Milanese international outlook is hinted italiana, Lugano; citizens drove Austrian soldiers from at through the inclusions of Jean- photograph Museo the city. A powerful call to arms, Vincenzo Vela / Baptiste-Camille Corot’s The Roman Mauro Zeni; exh. Hayez’s Meditation (no.98; Fig.16), campagna, with the Claudian aqueduct Gallerie d’Italia, is found in the room devoted to the (probably 1826; National Gallery, Milan). erotic female nude: a sombre woman London; no.21), J.M.W. Turner’s Lake Above with a bared breast holds a book titled Avernus: Aeneas and the Cumaean sibyl 16. Meditation, by Francesco Hayez. Storia d’Italia and a cross marked (1814–15; Yale Center for British Art, 1851. Canvas, with the dates of the Five Days in New Haven; no.47) and Caspar David 92.5 by 71 cm. red letters, symbolising martyrs’ (Galleria d’Arte Friedrich’s sublime Moonrise over the Moderna ‘Achille blood. The exhibition closes with sea (1821; State Hermitage Museum, St Forti’, Verona; exh. dramatic commemorations of the Petersburg; no.1). This is rounded out Gallerie d’Italia, 1849 defence of the Roman Republic: Milan). by quotes on the wall from Giacomo Trastevere woman struck by a bomb by the Leopardi, Emily Bronte, Charles Opposite Garibaldian soldier–painter Gerolamo 17. Veiled Vestal, Dickens and Victor Hugo. by Raffaele Monti. Induno (1850; Galleria Nazionale What most distinguishes 1845. Marble, d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 48 by 25.5 by 27 Italian Romanticism is its civil and cm. (Castle of Rome; no.177) and Giovanni Strazza’s political patriotism. The exhibition Racconigi, Cuneo; marble Audacious Righetto (1851; Palazzo exemplifies how a patriotic spirit exh. Gallerie Litta, Milan; no.178), which portrays served to catalyse romantic emotion, d’Italia, Milan). a twelve-year-old hero who died with creating a common aspiration his dog while trying to diffuse a bomb. towards national unification. Many Ultimately, the viewer who seeks of the artists represented in the show to discover what Italian Romantic participated in riots and fought in art was will not find a cohesive pre-Risorgimento battles. Numerous answer in this exhibition. This may works scattered throughout the be because the works created during exhibition deal with these themes this time are so different from one 152 the burlington magazine | 161 | february 2019 EXHIBITIONS_FEB19.indd 152 17/01/2019 18:36 EXHIBITIONS_FEB19.indd 153 17/01/2019 18:36 Exhibitions another in subject and style. The 18. Woman in exhibition provides a springboard blue, by Pablo Picasso. 1901. for re-incorporating Romantic art as Canvas, 133 by part of the Italian tradition, as well as 100 cm. (Museo a starting point for new discussions Nacional Centro de Arte Reina about its role on the world stage. Sofía, Madrid; exh. Fondation 1 Catalogue: Romanticismo. Edited by Beyeler, Basel). Fernando Mazzocca. 384 pp. incl. 220 col. and b. & w. ills. (Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2018), €34. 19. The embrace, ISBN 978–88–366–4100–0. by Pablo Picasso. 1903. Pastel on paper, 98 by 57 cm. (Musée de l’Orangerie, Picasso: Blue and Rose Paris; exh. Musée Musée d’Orsay, Paris d’Orsay, Paris). 18th September 2018–6th January The Young Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods Fondation Beyeler, Basel 3rd February–26th May by elizabeth cowling Picasso’s hugely popular early work has been the subject of many exhibitions, but Picasso: Blue and Rose, which closed at the Musée d’Orsay, in Barcelona. Inevitably there were Paris, on 6th January, was the first significant absentees, the most comprehensive survey to be held in grievous being the fresco-like Family France, its array of paintings and of Saltimbanques (1905; cat.