Press Release Milan, Pinacoteca Di Brera March, 14Th 2016

PINACOTECA DI BRERA BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE BRAIDENSE Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo

Via Brera 28, 20121 Milano t +39 02 72263264 - 229 [email protected] www.pinacotecabrera.org

press release Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera March, 14th 2016

t the Pinacoteca di Brera from March 17 to June 27, 2016 there will be an extraordinary comparison between two cornerstones of art history: the AMarriage of the Virgin by Raphael, one of the most important masterpieces of Pinacoteca’s collection, and the Marriage of the Virgin by Perugino, returning to 3 Italy from the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Caen the first time since 1797 to be seen together for the first time in history. The comparison between the altarpiece by Pe- rugino and the painting by Raphael, which have the same subject and multiple con- nections, appears in nearly textbook of art history, but until today it has never been done in the flesh. Now, for the first time, they are face to face. Some time after -Pe rugino’s painting was removed from Perugia’s cathedral, in 1825, it was replaced by Jean-Baptiste Wicar painting. This is a unique occasion to create not only a dialogue between a master and his pupil, but celebrate a piece of Italian history that makes up the civic pride and municipal and religious identity that explains Italy’s cultural heritage. These are among the reaons that make the first dialogue between the museum’s collections and ‘guest’ masterpieces invited by Pinacoteca di Brera and by its director James M. Bradburne, as the occasions for the reinstallation of the per- manent collection which in three years will include the entire museum’s collection. Because of this series of “conversations” and thanks to the reinstallation of the rooms around each dialogue, the visitor will discover new ways to experience the paintings of the art gallery. Each new installation will comprise a new selection of [FIRST DIALOGUE] Raphael and Perugino the museum’s masterpieces, new wall colours, new lighting and new labelling, after and two which the public will be invited to evaluate the changes. The first rooms involved are Marriages of the Virgin those of Del Cossa, Ercole de’ Roberti and Crivelli, as well as the museum’s innova- Press Conference tion open storage. The reinstallation of the museum’s collection also means a mor- March, 14th 2016 Sala della Passione atorium: during the following three years the Brera’s masterpieces will stay home in Milan. Two hundred years after it was removed at the orders of Napoleon, the massive Perugino altarpiece returns to Italy, possible thanks to an agreement between the Musée des Beaux-Arts and Pinacoteca di Brera, who exceptionally loaned the French museum the Brera’s Supper at Emmaus painted by Caravaggio. The fiest ‘dialogue’ and the new installations will open March 17 and on the occasion the museum be free to the public from 8.30 a.m. until 7.15 p.m. (last entrance 6.40 p.m.).

THE MARRIAGES When Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino, painted his version of the Marriage of the Virgin was the manager of the most prestigious Italian workshop. He became famous because of his fresco panels for the Sistine chapel walls. His fame brings to the workshop lots of artists like Vasari, the young Raphael San- zio son of the painter Giovanni Santi. No wonder that the young Raphael, who already was a well-known painter, took Perugino’s work as a model to create the last work of his educational period, after which he will move to Florence. Perugino’s altarpiece was commissioned by the brotherhood of St. Joseph for St. Law- rence cathedral and was painted around 1499-1504; the masterpiece was exhibited next to the relic of the sacred ring of the Virgin. Raphael’s Virgin was painted in 1504 for the chapel of St. Joseph in the church of St. Francis Castello city, less than 60 kilometres away from Perugia. This painting recalls the Sistine chapel fresco Delivery of the keys. In this painting we can see a square, a big building and the use of central perspec- 4 tive finally the characters are gathered together. Even if Raphael represents the same scheme in these two paintings, he arranges the characters more freely; in this way there is a visual link with the raised temple, which become the keystone of an immense and harmonious use of the space.

MASTERPIECES DIALOGUE - PINACOTECA DI BRERA This first “dialogue” gives visitors the opportunity to think about the relation- ships between a master and his pupil, a connection that was very important to Ra- phael who was already ready to move to Florence. Thanks to the two masterpieces on display together it will be easier to tell this little known episode of Italian at history. Perugino’s painting was intended for the altar of the Chapel of the Ring in the Cathedral of Perugia, already famous for its possession of a famous relic, a chalcedony hoop which, according to the tradition, the Virgin gave to the Apostle John just before her death. During the Middle age the relic arrived in Chiusi, where it was preserved in the church of Santa Mustiola, and then in the Church of St. Francis. In 1473 the relic was smuggled by a monk to Perugia. Pope Sixtus IV gave [FIRST DIALOGUE] Raphael and Perugino the relic to Perugia thus ending the historical emnity between the two cities. The and two relic was preserved in the Chapel of the Decimvir (ten men) in the Priori palace but Marriages of the Virgin in 1488 it was given to the canons regular of St. John and subsequently preserved Press Conference in the St. Joseph Chapel, a place consecrated to the sacred ring where is still pre- March, 14th 2016 Sala della Passione served. Perugino’s altarpiece was commissioned for the altar of this chapel. The

www.pinacotecabrera.org ring became not only a religious relic but also a symbol for the city, as also hap- pened with similar relics, such as the Girdle of Thomas or The blood of Mantova. In the first ‘dialogue’ of the Pinacoteca di Brera (room XXIV) we can also find theMar - riage of the Virgin by Jean-Baptiste Wicar, commissioned from the French portraitist for the bare altar of St. Lawrence cathedral, when the previous work was removed.

THE MARRIAGE AND THE MUSIC The Marriage of the Virgin is also music: for the occasion in Sala VIII the pia- nist Clive Britton perform an extraordinary concert dedicated to Franz Liszt. The Austrian musician composed La deuxième Année de Pèlerinage: Italie following his trip in Italy in 1837, dedicated the masterpieces of Italian art and literature. His experience of Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin inspired the work’s overture.

[FIRST DIALOGUE] Raphael and Perugino and two Marriages of the Virgin

Press Conference March, 14th 2016 Sala della Passione