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La Venaria Reale 2015 Raphael. The Sunshine of the Arts. La Venaria Reale – Communication & Press Office Piazza della Repubblica 4 – 10078 Venaria Reale (Turin) +39 011 4992300 (Main Switchboard - Offices) - +39 011 4992333 (Call Center) [email protected] - www.lavenaria.it 1 La Venaria Reale – Communication & Press Office Piazza della Repubblica 4 – 10078 Venaria Reale (Turin) +39 011 4992300 (Main Switchboard - Offices) - +39 011 4992333 (Call Center) [email protected] - www.lavenaria.it 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS • Page 04 Raphael. The Sunshine of the Arts. • Page 05 The exhibition • Page 11 General Information La Venaria Reale – Communication & Press Office Piazza della Repubblica 4 – 10078 Venaria Reale (Turin) +39 011 4992300 (Main Switchboard - Offices) - +39 011 4992333 (Call Center) [email protected] - www.lavenaria.it 3 Raphael The Sunshine of the Arts. "[…] the famous Raphael, in whose lifetime great Mother Nature feared to be outdone, and at whose death feared to die." Pietro Bembo Rooms of the Arts, Reggia di Venaria From 26 September 2015 to 24 January 2016 Curated by Gabriele Barucca and Sylvia Ferino Scientific Committee: Antonio Paolucci (chair), Cristina Acidini, Anna Imponente, Lorenza Mochi Onori, Maria Luisa Papotti, Mario Scalini, Maria Sframeli, Maria Rosaria Valazzi Organization: Consorzio La Venaria Reale, with the participation of MondoMostre srl and Fondazione per la Cultura Torino Partners: Intesa San Paolo With the support of: Compagnia di San Paolo Under the patronage of: The City of Turin Città metropolitana di Torino From 26 September 2015 to 24 January 2016 the Reggia di Venaria - the grandiose estate located just outside Turin, a masterpiece of architectural and landscape, enlisted as one of UNESCO's World Heritage sites - devotes an extraordinary exhibition to Raphael (Urbino, 1483 - Rome, 1520), the sublime artist who attained unprecedented heights of perfection in the 16th century, with loans from leading Italian and international museums. The exhibition is curated by Gabriele Barucca (Authority for Fine Arts and Landscape of the Marche Region) and Sylvia Ferino (former Director of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna), with a Scientific Committee made up of eminent scholars chaired by Antonio Paolucci, Director of the Vatican Museums. The late Enrico Castelnuovo, Professor Emeritus at Scuola Normale di Pisa, also contributed to the project. La Venaria Reale – Communication & Press Office Piazza della Repubblica 4 – 10078 Venaria Reale (Turin) +39 011 4992300 (Main Switchboard - Offices) - +39 011 4992333 (Call Center) [email protected] - www.lavenaria.it 4 The exhibition This exhibition is a unique and very special event that presents, for the first time ever and in an unprecedented display consisting of more than 130 pieces, Raphael's role as the inspirator of a vast production of the so-called arti congeneri (lesser or decorative arts). This definition, provided by Vasari, referred to the applied arts that assimilated in their techniques the prodigious figurative inventions of the great artist from Urbino. Raphael's masters and early works The first section of the exhibition illustrates, through a number of magnificent paintings, the life of Raphael from his formative years as a young artist (in Urbino and Città di Castello) to his early maturity (in Perugia, Siena and Florence). The display opens with a series of beautiful works by the masters who played a crucial role in Raphael's artistic career: his father Giovanni Santi (Muses series from Palazzo Corsini), Luca Della Robbia (Madonna of the Apple, Bargello, Florence), Pietro Perugino (St. Mary Magdalene from Palazzo Pitti, Florence), Pinturicchio (Madonna of the Peace from Pinacoteca Civica di San Severino Marche) and Luca Signorelli (Crucifixion from Galleria Nazionale delle Marche of Urbino). These are accompanied by a number of Raphael's early paintings: the predella with Stories from the life of Mary (Fano, Church of Santa Maria Nuova) in which the young Raphael collaborated with his master Perugino, the Processional Cross (today at Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan), St. Sebastian (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara), and The Angel (Brescia, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo) which is a fragment from the Baronci Altarpiece for St. Augustin in Città di Castello. 5 The "arti congeneri" and the myth of Raphael as the Sunshine of the Arts The exhibition aims to approach Raphael's genius from an unusual and unexpected standpoint, that is the illustration of his creative genius benefitting what Vasari called the "arti congeneri", those "lesser arts" in which his cartoons and drawings were transposed and interpreted. In addition to an important tapestry section, the display presents an exquisite set of maiolicas depicting Raphael’s cartoons and drawings. In the 16th and 17th centuries these objects served to popularize the prodigious figurative inventions of the Italian master in Italy and across Europe. Raphael's fortune and his myth spread most notably through the prints of the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi (1480 ca - 1534) from Bologna, that represented "models" completed by the master, in some cases "early ideas", and intermediate drawings. Raphael also provided to Marcantonio some drawings made especially to be turned into engravings. Around 1515-1516 other engravers joined Raphael's workshop at a time when interest was growing around his inventions: thus, in addition to Marcantonio, "Raphael's Team" came to include Marco Dente from Ravenna, Agostino Veneziano and Ugo da Carpi. It is thanks to the extraordinary success of those engravings based on Raphael's work that, starting in the first quarter of the 16th century, numerous craftsmen started to transpose Raphael's graphical works into their arts and crafts, including sculptors, smelters, ceramists, mosaicists, engravers, and armorers. The exhibition presents this extraordinary wealth of materials and techniques. In particular, special emphasis is placed on 16th century "historiated" maiolicas whose inspiration and development owes much to Raphael's work. These pieces were crafted in workshops in Casteldurante, Pesaro, Gubbio, Urbino and later Faenza, Deruta, and other smaller towns. Moreover, rock crystals, metal plaques, enamels, glasswork, armory and wood carvings, including one of the magnificent doors of the Vatican Rooms (the one between the Room of Heliodorus and the Room of Constantine) further illustrate the artistic legacy of the eminent master. 6 The exhibition narration touches on various themes and pictorial works that define Raphael's mastery as an inspirator of styles and iconographic models, illuminating the arts like a bright Sunshine. One of the main subjects that are commonly identified with Raphael is the Madonna with Child, represented in this exhibition by the Madonna del Granduca from the Galleria Palatina of Palazzo Pitti, a splendid example of Raphael's sweet and human portraits of the Virgin Mary. This masterpiece is accompanied by two beautiful ancient replicas of the Bridgewater Madonna (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte) and the Madonna d'Orléans by Gerolamo Giovenone (Turin, Museo Civico d'Arte Antica). Also on display are a set of polychrome majolica plates, cups and plaques that were influenced by his most famous inventions, like the Madonna of Foligno, or La Belle Jardinière, that is found in the high-relief by Girolamo della Robbia. The presence in the exhibition of the superb painting by Raphael depicting Ezekiel's Vision (Florence, Palazzo Pitti) provides the opportunity to compare the drawing by Rubens (Florence, Museo Horne) and the large Flemish tapestry from the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas of Madrid as precious offshoots of the famous model by Raphael. Another masterpiece from the master's mature phase follows, The Ecstasy Of St. Cecilia from Bologna, an extremely famous work that deeply influenced devotional painting in Europe in the 17th century. The painting is still encased in its original frame, a splendid artifact by the engraver Giovanni Barili, with whom Raphael also collaborated for the doors of the Vatican Rooms and Loggias. This extraordinary artistic "following" is also exemplified in religious themes, stories and myths, like The Judgement of Paris: the many pieces on display include richly decorated shields and a fabulous burgonet helmet from Dresden. Another famous iconographic model inspired by Raphael is also evoked here through several pieces and techniques: The Triumph of Galatea, the 1511 fresco at the Farnesina, the Roman villa of the banker Agostino Chigi. 7 Raphael was also particularly keen on the arts of goldsmithing and mosaic, for which he provided drawings and projects for works and artifacts: around 1517 he worked for Lorenzo de' Medici and Pope Leo X on the design of fabulous jewelry and gold items that would donated to the French Court. At the heart of this commission was the Perfume Burner designed by the artist for Francis I, as shown in an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi. The section devoted to jewelry is further enhanced by three extremely famous portraits by Raphael: Young Man With An Apple (Florence, Uffizi), Portrait of a Young Woman (or La Muta, 1507, Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche) and Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga (1504-1505, Florence, Uffizi) wearing a pendant in the shape of a scorpion that is reproduced in the black glass piece on loan from the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. The interest of the artist in precious materials and his professional relations