art | AboutUmbria Magazine

Love in the Time of Collodion

Settembre 21, 2022

Dark plates, haughty looks, smoky images; eyes that seem to penetrate the observer. The photographer carefully handles the panels, wearing chemical gloves, and soaks them in wondrous solutions. All the bystanders observe with curiosity what happens inside the bowl, waiting for the images to take shape. And then, just under their anxious eyes, haughty, eternal looks emerge from the translucent liquid.

Photo by Stefano Fasi

A SOCIAL PROJECT
Wet collodion photographs and the ancient arts of the Lake Trasimeno are the protagonists of L’Amore ai Tempi del Collodio (Love in the Time of Collodion). This initiative was born from the collaboration of three friends – Marco Pareti, Rosanna Milone, and Stefano Fasi – with a passion for Lake Trasimeno. They decided to immortalize what makes the place so special, that is the people – their work and everyday life, especially.
From people of the lake, the three are trying to create a sort of collective memory. In fact, Love at the Time of Collodion is the second of a series of social and cultural initiatives, entitled Trasimeno in Dialogo (Trasimeno in Conversation). The project started in 2017, to promote fundraising that would allow the restoration of one of the symbols of the lake. In May, 2017, the barchetto (small boat) – the last specimen of this kind of boat used for trawling – went up in flames. One year later – thanks to the insurance payment and to the money raised from the sale of the Calendario dell’Estate (Summer Calendar) – the uscio (threshold) was built, and the restoration began.

: Photo by Stefano Fasi

: Photo by Stefano Fasi

THE COLLODION
The second edition of the calendar focused on wet collodion photographs. This technique had two variants: the ambrotipo (ambrotype) – which was on glass – and the tintype – on iron or aluminum sheets, or on polished tin. During the second half of the eighteenth century, the technique became synonymous with photography all over the world.
The three friends armed themselves with a cherry wood Astoria, dated 1852, and took pictures of fishermen, lace makers, boats restorers, basket and fishing net weavers, stone-cutters, and farmers. All those who are the last living proof of ancient arts; those men and women from the lake posed patiently for hours, to make that act of love come true.
Wet collodion photographs require a long and meticulous preparation. Plates must be treated a few seconds before and developed soon after the photograph has been taken. In fact, the camera obscura must be set up on site, and that’s why Stefano, Rosanna and Marco travel by RV. On board they can mix powders with acids, obtaining timeless pictures that are unique in their imperfection.
Each panel features interviews and backstage shots; postcards, calendars, and publications show a huge historical and anthropological heritage..

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Perugia, a real-life postcard

Settembre 20, 2022

Art Culture

la Redazione

The beauty of Perugia doesn’t come from her majestic monuments or impressive squares, but from the personal experience that is felt by walking through the alleys of her historical centre.

Saint Ercolano church

Wandering the city’s streets, it’s possible to end up being in wonderful corners with stunning landscapes that are captured by lots of tourists, arrived in the city exactly for this peculiarity. As an unrepeatable treasure hunt of amazing and unique views, inspiration for paintings by all the ages’ artists.

In the frescoes of the Priori Chapel, a chapel inner the National Gallery of Umbria, it’s portrayed the pictorial cycle of Saint Ludovico da Tolosa and Saint Ercolano lives, by the Perugian artist Benedetto Bonfigli. The episodes of Saint Ercolano’s life, one of the three patrons of Perugia, show a representation of the city in the fifteen century, with the numerous towers not yet destroyed. Even if the landscape it’s different from today, some elements are still recognizable.

The episode La presa di Perugia da parte di Totila [Totila’s siege of Perugia] features the Goti conquer of the city and the martyrdom of Saint Ercolano, whose burial is portrayed on the lower right, just in front of the well identifiable façade of the homonymous church.

La presa di Perugia da parte di Totila [Totila’s siege of Perugia], by Benedetto Bonfigli

The next episode, Prima traslazione del corpo di Sant’Ercolano dalla prima sepoltura alla Basilica di San Pietro [Translation to San Pietro], shows the displacement of the Saint obsequies from the Saint Ercolano church to the Saint Peter cathedral, with a huge procession. In this fresco is possible to see in the foreground, on the right, the red and white façade and the impressive bell tower of the Saint Peter cathedral.

Translation to San Pietro, by Benedetto Bonfigli

While, on the centre of the background, it’s visible the basilica church of Saint Domenico with his famous stained-glass window and the bell tower, whose upper part was demolished after the Rocca Paolina construction. Another example of a Renaissance representation of Perugia, it’s portrayed in the panel Gonfalone della Giustizia by the most famous Perugian artist, Il Perugino. In this painting, which is now in the National Gallery of Umbria, it’s seen, in the foreground, a view of the Porta Eburnea district, one of the five districts of the historical centre of Perugia, as a beautiful postcard from the sixteen century.

Gonfalone della Giustizia by Il Perugino

One of the most famous Perugian landmark is the Rocca Paolina. Built by the will of Pope Paolo III Farnese, from whom it takes the name, was erected between 1540 and 1543, as an emblem of the Pope supremacy over the city. After the annexation of Perugia in the kingdom of Italy, it was gradually destroyed, till the small portion visible today. Two little paintings of the Perugian artist Giuseppe Rossi, that are now in the National Gallery of Umbria, show the majesty and the impressiveness of the fortress that, before the demolition, englobed all the southside of the city.

It’s interesting how little it’s remained of the original structure: the Pope Palace, at the top right of the board, it’s today replaced by Piazza Italia, Giardini Carducci and Palazzo della Prefettura. While the so-called Tenaglia [Pincer], at the bottom left, stood in the place where today there is Piazza Partigiani.

The pictorial representation of Perugia’s beauties it’s not an exclusive prerogative of Perugian artists, but it’s seen also in foreign artists or artists that come from other parts of Italy that, after a long-term residence, fell in love with the city and portrayed it in fascinating paintings.

Arco Etrusco, by Luigi Marzo

Luigi Marzo is an artist from the area of Salento who, after coming to Perugia to study at the university, had been enchanted by the city, and decided to remain to live there. In the small expressionistic painting called Arco Etrusco, he represents one of the landmarks of the city, the north gate of the Etruscan wall. Marzo chose to portray the Arch focusing not on an accurate and objective representation but expressing through the painting his sensations and emotions over the place illustrated. The result is an intimate and personal artwork. The little painting by the Dutch artist Christian Seebauer, shows a view of Perugia from the Pincetto zone. Comparing the picture to a photograph, the confrontation is surprising. The punctuality ad accuracy with whom the painter has depicted all the details is really remarkable and demonstrates the admiration of Seebauer for the city, grown during his studies at the University for Foreigners of Perugia.

Perugia, Christian Seebauer

The last suggested painting belongs to Valerio Lombardelli, aka Wallas, an artist from the city of Pesaro. The print, titled Perugia, Quando Scende La Notte, Si Accendono Le Luci E Inizia Lo Spettacolo Dell’amore [Perugia, when the night falls, the lights come on and the show of love begins], represents the most emblematic place of the city, the IV November Square, with the Major Fountain and the staircase of the Priori Palace. The work, part of a series of paintings dedicated to the city, presents the typical characteristics of the artist’s style, with bright and unnatural colours and a light sight despite the starry night. A dual representation, intimate and explosive, that proposes herself as an invitation to visit Perugia.
The illustration of Perugia’s monuments and landscapes doesn’t end with these few examples, there are countless paintings and drawings by more or less famous artists that, every year, engage in the city representation.
A pure and simple act of love, a gratitude gesture to a city that hosted them and made them feel home. In fact, whether it’s writing, music or painting, art is a necessary expression of feelings, and there’s nothing that inspires more than a beautiful view.

Perugia, Quando Scende La Notte, Si Accendono Le Luci E Inizia Lo Spettacolo Dell’amore [Perugia, when the night falls, the lights come on and the show of love begins], Wallas

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Affiliati Peducci & Savini, a school of sculptural art

Settembre 20, 2022

Art Culture

Antonella Pesola

The artistic duo Matteo Peducci from Castiglione del Lago and Sienese Mattia Savini met because of their love for sculpture, a passion both pursue after graduating from the Fine Arts Academy of Carrara in 2007. But Affiliati Peducci Savini isn’t simply the name of their partnership, it is also the name for their place of art: a decommissioned quarry of pink limestone in the hills of Assisi, now home to their white creatures, where they both live and work and which has become their ideal place of research and experimentation. They transform marble with ability and craftsmanship, reproducing the other materials with striking resemblance, proving the versatility of the marble here molded to imitate materials like paper, polystyrene, wood or plastic, to an estranging effect, suggesting just how deceptive reality can be.

Peducci e Savini, foto di Claudia Ioan

By a deep knowledge of the classical canons, sculpture is directed towards new interpretations, enhancing the nobility of the material with a witty sense of humor. Research and experimentation are the hinges of this artistic duo, who have turned an important laboratory into a bustling art-studio, retrieving the single specializations and pausing on each step of the artistic process, from the extraction of the marble to the final levigating of the stone. An ideal dimension, resembling the old botteghe (art workshops), where the ancient knowledge and work is taught in direct contact with the maestro.

: Foto di Claudia Ioan

: Foto di Claudia Ioan

: Foto di Massimiliano Tuveri

The craft foresees great teamwork, with specialists for each step, from molding clay to polishing the finished stone-work; the demand for professional artisans arose and a proper school of sculpture was founded. Peducci and Savini, after many years spent working in Italy and abroad, sculpting artworks for the king of Thailand and collaborating with important artists, such as Cattelan, Penone and Jan Fabre, since 2014 have also worked closely with the Research Center of the Normale di Pisa University, developing new technologies for electroplating and electro-sculpture, used for their metal artworks – and studying the geopolymers.

: Foto di Massimiliano Tuveri

: Foto di Claudia Ioan

The reality created by Peducci and Savini embodies the Magnum Opus – in alchemy, the process of manufacture and transformation of matter, material and spiritual metamorphosis into purification. They are sculptors who search for new perspective and new application within contemporary art, recovering the values that made it indispensable.

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A grand and absolute silence

Aprile 21, 2021

Art Culture

Antonella Pesola

«Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color, and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows — a colorless, all- color of atheism from which we shrink?» Herman Melville, Moby Dick.

A perfect opposition to black, white too is a non-color, similarly a clot of all possible colors. «White strikes us as a grand silence which feels absolute», says Kandinskji. There is white as an absence of sound, as a place of purity, a place of nothingness and of the invisible. A color telling tales of silence, of hiding, of progressive subtractions until almost nothing remains. This is how extreme abstraction unfolds, achieved by the exercise of Kazimir Malevič, Russian painter and founder of Suprematism, who in 1918 painted the unconceivable: a white square on white background. Only an imperceptible contour outlines the quadrangular area, slightly rotated, the mental space delimited, a non-object nevertheless possible, where slightly different shades affirm the existence of a protected space. Almost invisible. He writes: «In art the absolute supremacy of the plastic sensitivity must prevail on the naturalistic descriptivism, this is an invitation to research a non-objective art, in which figurative and representative elements are canceled; this painting of mine says: this is not an empty canvas, a deleted icon I framed, but it is an invitation to perceive the non-objective of the objective in status nascendi»[i].

Affiliati Peducci & Savini, a school of sculptural art

Contenitori vuoti, 2019, di Tonina Cecchetti. Proprietà privata.

A journal of femininity by Tonina Cecchetti

An artist from Sigillo, sculptor of great experience, Tonina Cecchetti almost exclusively uses ceramics though with various techniques and is especially interested in the human body, either in its integrity or mutilated, but always in the great expression of a shiny white.

Her bodies, shaped as mannequins, are of different height, at times only visible as legs, with bare feet standing on wooden bases, often dressed in white garments, evoking ceremonial sacred rites, inevitably embellished with lace and veils. Cecchetti displays a journal of femininity in relationship to the acceptance or refusal of one’s body, while investigating the great mystery of maternity. Her statues scream in silence, a dramatic relationship with aesthetics unfolds, the social will of an always perfect body, the recognition of a public equalitarian and dignified status.

The most investigated themes are those of the female body and of the child, with graceful shapes often set in unsettling and surreal context. The pale shade of the flesh is often in contrast with the dark backgrounds, becoming beacons of light in the night, like dreams governing the obscurity of a deep sleep rummaging through the unconscious by just existing.

The double we often find in her artwork represents duality, a declared value she wishes to rehash, the tensions of the union with the other, a breath of hope for a harmonious cohabitation. The artist explores the two-dimensionality, a space where her actors are trapped in a thought-out scenography, where they may recover a harmonious livability by overcoming a tragedy, a subtle restlessness ironically evoked, staging actions scanning mutations, unravelling the conscious yet not always ending in happiness.

The vibrating and estranging nature of Eraldo Chiucchiú

The Deruta-born sculptor has always expressed his imagery in ceramic and in his long career he has conducted a scientific research, studying the different themes and the different techniques, investigating geological phenomenon and constantly experimenting to find new technical solutions.

White has become predominant in his latest productions, inevitably, as he wisely works with porcelain, crafted into thin sheets in light boxes lit by led and in mobiles, part of his intriguing series Litofanie. The sheets become as fine as paper, etched with graphemes their surfaces are vibrant. White is investigated in all its potential and transparency plays an important role as it influences the tactile or visual perceptions.

Frattura holds a unique stylistic code and displays his great technical wisdom in turning surfaces into enlarged particles or materials: Chiucchiú investigates what lies beyond which is cleverly evoked in his work. His light boxes, made of two thin sheets of porcelain descending from above, compose a habitat where a new refined plant universe reigns, reminiscence of the elegant oriental art.

Everything changes if the light goes on: the sculptural elements strike for their harmony and balance, but the led-lights change the perspective and the cold milky white is transformed in warmer welcoming shades, lovingly embracing the viewer, inviting into a new natural dimension, estranging yet also reassuring.

“QUIETE” di Eraldo Chiucchiù

Assaulting white: Giosuè Quadrini

The most recent artworks of Giosuè Quadrini, a young artist from Terni and among the most interesting to date, are solved in a complex composition of impressions, graphics and symbols standing out on their surfaces of wax. He rediscovers the ancient technique of encaustic painting, repurposed in a dramatic modernity, where opacity is in contrast with the writings, where white is constantly assaulted by the signs, color zones, words and become a welcoming surface of a convoluted tale.

The whites affectionately absorb the light, the opacities are in contrast with the symbols and writings and other shades, evoking the deepest emotions for an intimate yet universal narration, because they tell us of the meaning of being; there is no embellishment, just humility.

Quadrini’s poetic wafts through like a whisper, the dirty white creates the neutral tonality, never uniformed, revealing the manual work, layer after layer: the shades are never shrill or in opposition, but compose a refined palette, researched, intended, experienced. The choice of wax allows more subtle engravings: like a layer of pale skin, the wax is a veiled surface which protects but never hides. His investigation of the material is tarnished, yet sublimed, it is fused with the process of time which consumes: there is something of archeological in Quadrini’s work, the elements must be carefully observed and searched for. The canvases are like walls with niches inhabited by the relics of the everyday or like closets, they are content and containers, as if they suggest that there is a hiding place, a safe place, somewhere to conserve.

Image is pure meaning: Lauretta Barcaroli

Artist from Terni, active for many years, Barcaroli recently developed a series of artworks which abandon the original figuration of her early training. The recent cycles exalt the gesture of the artist, now imbedded in the artwork’s materiality: here the image, free within a chromatic annihilation, may be exhibited to the observer as pure significant. Apparently Barcaroli’s material cycles seem to avoid any space defined by composition: rather we have surfaces autonomously undergoing the transformation in art work, according to the laws of chemistry. The narration is nullified, what we see is pure matter, as is its creation, it being a physical act; absence of color must underline the objectivity of the surface. Everything is planned into a carefully woven warp, even though we only realize later: by scrutinizing the surface, the color white used by the artist does nothing other but exalt the essence of the artwork, which is white and nothing else, rather is and nothing else: to be, total essence in pure becoming.

[i] K. S. Malevič, Non si sa a chi appartenga il colore, scritti teorico-filosofici, Nadia Caprioglio (a cura di), Torino, Hopefulmonster, 2010, p. 163.

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Cosmic white

Aprile 20, 2021

Art Culture Tourism

Giulia Venturini

An enigmatic artwork, laying between the snow-white walls of an unfinished church in Foligno: a cosmic union between sacred and profane.

In the nave of a church dedicated to the Annunciation and suspended between Baroque and Neoclassicism – its beauty and simplicity combined into a space of great symbolic and cultural significance – visitors are awed by a body of time-cancelling perfection; an artwork of historic value for its enigmatic and strongly characterized aura: the Calamita Cosmica (Cosmic Magnet) by Gino de Dominicis.

A monumental mostrum

Time has stopped upon a mighty white skeleton twenty-four meters long, perfectly replicating the bone structure of the human body; the skeleton has a thin and pointed nose, splitting the body in half and introducing conflict and division in the delicate lines of the face, making it some sort of monumental mostrum and generating a sense of inferiority and littleness in the observer. The eyes are sunken into a deep inward gaze, the arthritic hands and the long spindly fingers hold their own mysterious elegance; the only thing that breaks the purity of the white bones is a golden shaft, the so-called magnet, nine-meters high and balanced upright on the phalanx of the right middle finger[1].

Calamita Cosmica

The magnet that tells the time

The name, Calamita Cosmica, derives from the existence of a profound relationship between the white skeleton and the cosmic world: the golden shaft also known as magnet or gnomon, can tell time. The magnetic field created by the shaft pervades the whole skeleton – he is the creator and the beneficiary.
The artist could feel the weight of the human condition and was obsessed by the reality of age and by the cosmos: in his letters on immortality he wrote: «Aging is an illness […] corroding body and mind […] it is a tragic problem […] by stopping time at a chosen age and interrupting age, man would break the spell of the most mysterious dimension regulating the universe, and this would be the first step towards the possibility of a larger comprehension of life»[2].
The masterpiece was shown at Castel Sant’Elmo in Naples, at the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona, at the Royal Palace in Versailles, in the square of the Royal Palace in Milan and at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, finding its definitive location in the former church of Holy Trinity in Annunciation, in Foligno[3].

The unfinished church of Foligno

The church itself has a controversial history and background. It was built between 1760 and 1765 – when it was consecrated – to be one of the most beautiful churches in the Foligno area. It bares the prestigious signature of Carlo Murena, scholar of Luigi Vanvitelli, and was meant to embody the highest architectural ambitions, topped by refined plaster decorations, but was instead left unfinished. From the beginning it had been destined to be a church, instead it was also used as a granary and a warehouse; today it has become an exhibition area[4]. Probably, its bare and unfinished architectures is what makes it such a fascinating space, where time feels still and suspended.
Two realities so far from one another, yet so close. Two completely contrasting styles: on one side, the neoclassicism and perfect architectural design by Carlo Murena, on the other, pure innovation of an immense white skeleton.
Two different and opposing destinations: sacred and profane, two similar yet contrary natures creating the perfect unity in one of the most characteristic cities in Umbria.

Gino de Dominicis

In the second half of the Twentieth century, Italy is enriched by an eclectic artist: Gino de Domenicis (Ancona, April 1st, 1947 – Rome, November 29th, 1998). He studied at the Art Institute in Ancona; in 1968 he moved to Rome, enlivening its artistic scenery by displaying his artworks in the streets and squares. De Dominicis has always been the main custodian and defender of his artworks: with lucidity and relentlessness, during his thirty-year long activity, he tried to subtract them from the homogenization of the mass media and the artworld, escaping any attempt of classification of his research within a specific current and opposing any publication of catalogues and books about his work. Regardless, his artworks were admired in the private galleries and public museums from Rome to Paris, from Grenoble to London, in New York and at many editions of the Venice Biennale.
Especially through his art, but also with verbal declarations and communications, he has always claimed for the visual arts a special mission and condition of existence: his is not an art reflecting on art, but an art that reflects on life^[1].
His artworks reclaim the power of image and tackle the fundamental questions: death, mystery of creation, the end of history and art as a practice to stop time. The objects had to be durable and immobile in their existence, so they could resist; the Calamita Cosmica, immobile for years inside the ex-church of Santissima Trinità in Annunziata in Foligno, perfectly embraces these principles.

[1]N. Bryson, The Buddha of the future in De Dominicis. Selected works on the art and the artist, by Gabriele Guercio, Umberto Allemandi e C. Torino, Stamperia artistica nazionale, 2003, pp. 28-29; G. di Pietrantonio e I. Tomassoni, Calamitati da Gino. Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea di Foligno, 26 November 2011-14 January 2012, promoted by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno, p. 4.

[2]G. Guercio, Raccolta di scritti sull’opera e l’artista, Torino, Umberto Allemandi e C. Stamperia artistica nazionale, 2003, p. 73.

[3]G. di Pietrantonio e I. Tomassoni, Calamitati da Gino, Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea di Foligno, 26 November 2011- 14 January 2012, promoted by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno, p. 3.

[4]G. Bosi, Foligno, una stagione: la città tra Otto e Novecento, Foligno, Orfini Numeister, 2009, p. 100.

[1]Filiberto Menna, De Dominicis o della immortalità in De Dominicis. Raccolte di scritti sull’opera e l’artista curated by Gabriele Guercio, Umberto Allemandi e C. Stamperia artistica nazionale, Turin, 2003, p. 13.

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The Province of Umbria: the palace and its painter

Luglio 7, 2020

Art Culture

Laura Zazzerini

The 15th December of 1860, the extraordinary administrator Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli set up the Provincia dell’Umbria by Act. No. 197: that way, the four previous pontifical delegations – Orvieto, Perugia, Spoleto, and Rieti – were united in one body. Also, the district (mandamento) of Gubbio was separated from the delegation of Urbino e Pesaro and united to the new body against the district of Visso, which was aggregated to Camerino. The Provincia dell’Umbria was organized in 6 districts (circondario), divided into 176 administrative municipalities (comuni) and 143 aggregated (appodiati) representing a surface of 9702 km2.

The Provincia dell’Umbria emerged among huge controversy and discontent that marchese Pepoli attempted to resolve both with words, calling peolple to give a demonstration of self denial “sacrificing traditions and local rivalries to homeland”[1], and with the force, suppressing any possible armed reaction.

Since the place of its construction was strategically defined, that is where once stood the much-hated papal symbol, Rocca Paolina, the Palazzo della Provincia has retained a major symbolic value. In this respect, the choice to assign the decorative enterprise of the interior to Domenico Bruschi is not a case. In fact, he had been working more than one occasion together with architect Antonio Cipolla, who had been entrusted with the provinding of the expert opinion, which was a plus, but especially Bruschi was the son of Carlo, who had taken part into the first War of Independence and this was a guarantee of intrinsic adhesion to modernity and of loyalty to unified Italy and its institutions. Therefore Bruschi’s cycle of frescoes, started in summer 1873 and finished at the time of the first provincial council held the 10th of September of the same year, has an as an extremely valuable symbol in order to sanction the officiality of the new institution. In the Sala del Consiglio Bruschi paints 8 allegorical figures representing the personification of the newly established political entities. He places the Provincia dell’Umbria and Italy facing each other next to the towns of Foligno, Orvieto, Perugia, Rieti, Spoleto e Terni “in a radial arrangement and essentially not hierarchical that underlines the harmonic participation of the parts to the whole”[2].

The Provincia dell’Umbria is placed – it’s not a case – in line with the President’s bench and it is represented seated on a stone throne with the coat of arms of Perugia, Foligno, Terni, Spoleto, Rieti e Orvieto and it is surmounted by the gonfalon of the Provincia dell’Umbria (a blue grifo passant on a red background). A hilly landscape in the background together with beech and olive branches that the woman supports with her right hand and nonetheless, on the left side, with the grain and the fruits oveflowing the cornucopia call to mind the agricultural vocation and at the same time the fertility of the Provincia dell’Umbria soil.

Domenico Bruschi, Provincia dell’Umbria, 1873 (Perugia, Palazzo della Provincia)

he woman wears splendid clothes of blue and gold brocade. The symbolism of the colours underlines the image that you wanted to put across, so while blue foreshadows mercy and loyalty, gold stands surety for legitimacy of power, glory and force. It is no coincidence that the eagle, always symbolizing cosmic power and here chosen as the subject holding the scroll with the name Provincia dell’Umbria in the Chamber 10 of the same Palace, stands out against a starry sky decorated in the same colours.

[1] The quotation is taken from G.B. Furiozzi, La Provincia dell’Umbria dal 1861 al 1870, Perugia, Provincia di Perugia, 1987, p. 7 e n. 10.

[2] S. Petrillo, La decorazione pittorica tra nuovi simboli, storia e politica per immagini, in F.F. Mancini (curated by), Il Palazzo della Provincia di Perugia, Perugia, Quattroemme, 2009, p. 218.

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2020. The year of Raphael

Luglio 6, 2020

Art Culture Events

Giulia Venturini

Umbria preserves the memory of Raphael’s extraordinary artistic story; throughout the region, in fact, Rapahael left traces, direct or indirect, of his art.

Crucifixion Gavari

He was one of the most famous painters and architects of the Renaissance. He considered one of the greatest artists of all time, his works marked an essential path for all subsequent painters and he was of vital importance for the development of the artistic language of the centuries to come.
Raphael was born in Urbino in «the year 1483, on Good Friday, at the tree in the morning, by Giovanni de’ Santi, a painter no less excellent, but a good man of good talent, and capable of directing his children to that good way which, unfortunately for him, had not been shown to him in his beautiful youth»[1]. A second version identifies the artist’s birth day on 6th April.

The school of Perugino

The city of Urbino was decisive for young Raphael: indeed, from a very young age, he had access to the rooms of Palazzo Ducale, and he could admire the works of Piero della Francesca, Francesco di Giorgio Martini and Melozzo da Forlì.
But the real apprenticeship took place in Perugino’s workshop of Perugino, where he was able to rediscover, through the refined variations of the master, the rigorous spatial articulation and the monumental compositive order.
Raphael intervened in the frescoes of the College of Change in Perugia: his painting is recognizable where the masses of colour assume almost a plastic value. It is precisely in this context that Raphael first saw the grotesque, painted on the ceiling of the College, which later entered his iconographic repertoire.[2]
In 1499 a sixteen-year-old Raphael moved to Città di Castello, where he received his first independent commission: the Standard of the Holy Trinity, commissioned by a local confraternity that wanted to offer a devotional work as a token of thanks for the end of a plague. It is preserved now in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Città di Castello. It is one of the very first works attributed to the artist, as well as the only painting of Raphael remained in the city. The banner, painted on both sides, depicts in the front the Trinity with Saints Rocco and Sebastiano and in the direction of the Creation of Eve. The precepts of Perugino art are still evident, both in the gentle landscape and in the symmetrical angels.

Marriage of the Virgin for church of San Francesco.

In Città di Castello the artist left at least two other works: the Crucifixion Gavari and the Marriage of the Virgin for the church of San Francesco. In the first one it is easy to note a full assimilation of Perugino’s manners, even if we note the first developments towards a style of its own. Today it is conserved at the National Gallery in London. The second, however, is one of the most famous works of the artist, which closes the youthful period and marks the beginning of the stage of artistic maturity.
The work is inspired by the similar altarpiece made by Perugino for the Duomo of Perugia, but the comparison between the two paintings reveals profound and significant differences.
Entering the small but delightful church of San Francesco, next to the chapel calves, built in the middle of 1500 on a design by Giorgio Vasari, there is the altar of San Giuseppe, which contains a copy of the Marriage of the Virgin. The original, stolen by the Napoleonic troops in 1798, is kept in the Pinacoteca di Brera.

The works created in Perugia

Meanwhile, the artist’s fame soon began to spread throughout Umbria; thus he came to the Umbrian capital city: Perugia. In the city he was commissioned the Pala Colonna, for the church of the nuns of Sant’Antonio and in 1502-1503 the Pala degli Oddi, commissioned by the famous family in Perugia for the church of San Francesco al Prato.
In 1503 the artist undertook many trips that introduced him to the most important Italian cities such as Florence, Rome and Siena. But the commissions from Umbria were not long in coming: in 1504 was commissioned the Madonna and Child and saints Giovanni Battista and Nicola, called Pala Ansidei.
In the same year he signed in Perugia the fresco with the Trinity and Saints for the church of the monastery of San Severo, which years later Perugino completed in the lower band.
The work of crucial importance was the Pala Baglioni (1507) commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni to commemorate the bloody events that led to the death of Grifonetto, her son. The work was carried out for the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia. Raphael in the altarpiece represented the indescribable pain of a mother for the loss of her son and the vital disturbance, through a monumental composition, balanced and studied in detail.

Trinity and Saints

Raphael became the reference painter for the largest and most important families of Perugia such as the Oddi, Ansidei and Baglioni, establishing himself as a great artist of relief; in the contract of his work, the Coronation of the Virgin, for the church of the nuns of Monteluce, he was mentioned as the best teacher in town. Raphael died on 6th April 1520 of fever caused, as Giorgio Vasari specifies, «by loving excesses». This year marks the 500th anniversary of death.
The artist was at the top of the Renaissance artistic season, bringing his painting to the highest levels of beauty and harmony. Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo wrote: «Raphael had in his face that sweetness and that beauty of the traits that are traditionally attributed to Good».
He lived his life with great commitment and continuity, giving future generations his incredible talent and his precious art, so much that he already deserved the title of divine in life.

[1] Giorgio Vasari, The lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects, Life of Raphael from Urbin, Firenze, 1568.⇑
[2] Paolo Franzese, Raphael, Mondadori Arte, Milano 2008, p. 13.⇑

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On the footstep of Perugino

Giugno 30, 2020

Art Culture

Giulia Venturini

Pietro Vannucci, known as Il Perugino, is considered one of the greatest exponents of humanism and the greatest representative of Umbrian painting in the 15th century. The painter moves in a historical context that is that of late humanism. «In the city of Perugia was born to a poor person from Castello della Pieve, called Christophe, a son who at baptism was called Peter (…) studied under the discipline of Andrea Verrocchio». (The lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters, and sculptors, from Cimabue to our times. Part two. Giorgio Vasari).

Self-portrait

Perugino was born in 1450 in Città della Pieve and its first Umbrian artistic experiences were probably based on local workshops such as those of Bartolomeo Caporali and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. From a very young age he moved to Florence, where he started attending one of the most important workshops: Andrea del Verrocchio’s. The city of the Medici was fundamental for its formation.
His masterpieces conceal religious intimacy: the gentle hills typical of Umbria, the wooded landscape realized with more shades of green, the soft-patterned characters and the fluttering tapes of the angels are his decorative styling that he then transmitted also to his pupil: Raphael.

The works in Umbria and beyond

One of his first documented works is The Adoration of the Magi, and the gonfalone with the Pietà, both in the exhibition halls of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. In 1473 Perugino received the first significant commission of his career: the Franciscans of Perugia asked him to decorate the niche of San Bernardino.
Later (1477-1478) is the detached fresco, today in the Pinacoteca Comunale of Deruta, with the Eternal Father with the saints Rocco and Romano, with a rare view of Deruta in the lower register; probably commissioned to invoke the protection of the Saints Roman and Rocco, since an epidemic of plague raged in the territory of Perugia. In 1478 he continued to work in Umbria, painting the frescoes of the Chapel of La Maddalena in the parish church of Cerqueto, near Perugia.
When he reached fame, he was called to Rome in 1479, where he carried out one of the greatest and most prestigious works: the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, work in which also Cosimo Rosselli, Botticelli, and the Ghirlandaio. It is here that he realizes one of his many masterpieces: The Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter, the Baptism of Christ and the Journey of Moses to Egypt. In the next ten years Perugino continued to gravitate between Rome, Florence and Perugia.
Between 1495 and 1496, he created another masterpiece: the Pala dei Decemviri, so called because it was commissioned by the decemviri of Perugia. In the same period he worked on the decoration of the Sala dell’Udienza in the Collegio del Cambio in Perugia, a cycle completed in 1500. In 1501-1504 is the year in which he made the Marriage of the Virgin, painted for the Chapel of the Holy Ring in the Cathedral of Perugia, iconography taken by Raphael for the church of San Francesco in Città di Castello.

Marriage of the Virgin

Perugino continued to receive commissions; in fact he realized the Madonna of Consolation, the gonfalone of Justice and the Pala Tezi, preserved in the exhibition halls of the National Gallery of Umbria and the Resurrection for San Francesco al Prato. Excellent works of the painter are also preserved in Città della Pieve, not far from the border with nearby Tuscany. At Santa Maria dei Bianchi and the Cathedral of SS Gervasio and Protasio, there are some of his most significant works such as the Adoration of the Magi.[1]
Following the footsteps of Perugino, you must sop in Panicale, a picturesque village that is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy. In the Church of San Sebastiano there is the work the Martyrdom of San Sebastiano, an entire wall frescoed by the artist.

Martyrdom of San Sebastiano

Another important stop to discover the whole art of the Divin Pittore is Fontignano, where in 1511 Perugino established his workshop to escape the plague. But the painter died because of the plague in 1523-1524, while he was working on a fresco depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds commissioned for the small Church of the Annunziata. That fresco then was finished by his students, and finally a Madonna with child, the last work he completed in 1522.
Perugino was the initiator of a new way of painting; the artist goes in constant search of landscapes of wider breath, admiring the example of previous Florentines such as Filippo Lippi, Domenico Veneziano and Beato Angelico. The Perugino proceeds towards a slow and gradual conquest of the natural. The harmony inherent in the landscape of Perugia was created by a mystical approach with nature and by an art that, rather than being based on the intellect and training of the eye, as happened in Florence, flowed from the heart and strength of feelings.[2] The Perugino thus marked the taste of an era.

[1] Emma Bianchi, “Petro penctore”: l’Adorazione dei magi e la confraternita di Santa Maria dei Bianchi di Città della Pieve, in Perugino e il paesaggio, Silvana Editoriale, 2004, pp. 119-128.⇑
[2] Silvia Blasio, Il paesaggio nella pittura di Pietro Perugino, in Perugino e il paesaggio, Silvana Editoriale, 2004, pp. 15-41.⇑

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Berto di Giovanni

Giugno 29, 2020

Art Culture

Giulia Venturini

Berto di Giovanni is a very important Umbrian painter because he helps us understand how the art of Perugino and Raphael greatly influenced even the smallest Umbrian personalities.

Berto di Giovanni is mentioned for the first time in a notarial deed dated 3rd January 1488. His name appears in the freshman painters for Porta Sole, although some documents mention him as Alberto or Ruberto. He is mentioned Chamberlain of Art and in 1502 he receives various payments together with Eusebio da San Giorgio and Nicolò da Cesena for the fresco, now disappeared, of a room intended for the bishop in the canonical of the cathedral.

St. John the Evangelist writes the Apocalypse. Perugia, Nazioanle Gallery of Umbria

In Perugino’s workshop

Berto di Giovanni worked in Perugino’s workshop together with other notable personalities: Eusebio da San Giorgio, Sinibaldo Ibi, Ludovico d’Angelo and Lattanzio di Giovanni. The store was a small reality in which social contrasts, their own time and their own experience were shared. This community led to the development of a Koiné, a style in which it becomes really difficult to try to isolate individual shaded areas in precise contours, suffocated by the need to adhere to a common and winning style.[1]
The most important work is the Madonna and Child with Saints James the Greater and Francis; first in San Francesco del Monte and now in the National Gallery of Umbria. The Virgin, seated in a vast landscape, holds the Child in her lap, holding a wreath of flowers in her hands, the Saints kneeling beside her, while two angels in flight place a crown on her head. The Child derives from the overturned cardboard used for the Madonna of the Kress collection, now in the National Gallery of Washington, with appropriate modifications to the little face and the right arm to make him hold, very visibly, the crown of flowers. The landscape, which opens behind the protagonists, makes the table even more fascinating. The figurative language of the composition seems to be articulated on several registers: on the one hand the calmness of a typically composition by Perugino, on the other a more modern evolution of the characters.[2]
Dated 1507 is the Sacred Conversation, now in London at Buckinghain Palace, in which they are depicted the Nativity of the Assumption and the Marriage of the Virgin. The altarpiece shows a prevalent Peruginesque influence with some memories of Pala Ansidei by Raphael.The painter also participated in an excellent work, now preserved in the Vatican Art Gallery: the Coronation of the Virgin, made by Raphael, then completed by Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni. Berto di Giovanni took part in the construction of the predella, now in the National Gallery of Umbria.[3]

Banner in the cathedral of Perugia

In the four scenes the strong color contrasts show the clear influence of Giulio Romano. In fact in the last period, Berto di Giovanni was attracted by the great painter. Walking through the halls of the National Gallery of Umbria you can admire other masterpieces of the painter: St. John the Evangelist in Patmos with the Eternal and the Stories of the saint, which was executed for the Cistercians of St. Giuliana in Perugia. In the table we can see the clumsy representation of the evangelist taken from the figure of Pythagoras in the School of Athens. The last certain work preserved in the cathedral of Perugia is a standar painted in 1526 on the occasion of the plague.[4]

[1]Laura Teza, A painting in society: Perugino, Berto di Giovanni and the Store of 1496, pp. 47-61, in Pietro Vannucci and the Perugian Painters of the early sixteenth century. Mondays of the Gallery. Proceedings of the Conferences 23 February- 10 May 2004, curated by Paola Mercurelli Salari, Superintendency for Architectural Heritage, Landscape, Umbria’s Historic Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage, Perugia, Ponte San Giovanni.⇑
[2] F. Santi, National Gallery of Umbria. Paintings, sculptures and objects of the XV-XVI centuries, Rome, 1985, p. 140, considers it Giannicola, while F. Todini, The Umbrian painting from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, Milan, 1989, I, p. 278 e P. Mercurelli Salari, Painter from Perugia area 9. Madonna with Child, two angels, the Saints Giacomo Maggiore and Francesco, in Perugino and the landscape, catalog of the exhibition (Città della Pieve, 28 February-18 July 2004), Milan 2004 , p .60 close to Berto di Giovanni.⇑
[3] Dictionary of Painters and Engravers Biographical and Critical, by Michael Bryan, p. 119, New Edition Revised and Enlarged, Edit by Robert Edmund Graves B.A., of the British Museum. Volume I A-K, London 1886.⇑
[4] Encyclopedia Treccani, Biographical Dictionary of Italians, Volume IX, 1967.⇑

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Aldo Rossi and Piazza Nuova in Fontivegge

Giugno 24, 2020

Architecture Culture

Anna Bertinelli

I was talking to a friend of mine who decided to spend her holidays in Umbria. I found myself giving advice on local design-themed itineraries! Thinking about which stages could be more curious and interesting, I could not help mixing design with craftsmanship and architecture, facets of a single large area made of manual skills, planning and creativity that strongly characterizes the Umbrian territory.

Piazza Nuova in Fontivegge

During our chat, my friend was pleasantly surprised by the amount of small and large companies operating in these areas, but, to tell the truth, what she found most interesting was Aldo Rossi, architect and designer who worked in Perugia, drafting, in the Eighties, the project for the redevelopment of the Fontivegge district, designing a new face for the former Piazza del Bacio, now Piazza Nuova.

I will tell you what I told her a few days ago and I leave you some indications for a short route through this architectural work, the most important of Perugia in the Twentieth century.

The itinerary

Leave your car in Pian di Massiano and get the Minimetro: by doing so you can easily reach the Fontivegge district which, a few steps from the railway station, houses the complex of offices and houses that embrace the square. Coming from the station, you enter this space by passing through a large staircase; as soon as you go up, the feeling you have is to be extremely small because of the grandeur of the buildings surrounding this urban space. The eye is immediately enraptured by the main building, a modern temple with clock, characterized by a massive colonnade with a staircase that, like a fortress, dominates the area; on the sides, there are two other buildings with a highly rational character. In the center of the square stands a fountain with straight lines and a monolithic appearance, today – alas – without water. Other modern residential and commercial buildings complete the modern acropolis.

The architect accepted the assignment in 1983, designing the long-awaited business center. In fact, in the previous decade, the international competition launched by the municipal administration had been cancelled, since the winning project was too oversized and expensive to afford, especially because of the crisis that ran in the Seventies.

Architecture

Rossi, who was the first Italian to win the Pritzker Prize for architecture, designs a long brick-paved pedestrian square that follows the natural slope, similar to other Umbrian squares placed in the city center. Looking for dialogue and integration with the past, Aldo Rossi – in this as in many other projects – makes use of archetypes, recurring elementary geometric shapes in the history of architecture, easily recognizable and capable of making the project surprisingly innovative and traditional at the same time. In this regard, someone wanted to see in Piazza Nuova the modern revival of Piazza IV Novembre with the steps of San Lorenzo, Palazzo dei Priori and the Fontana Maggiore. Pure and essential geometries are also recurring in his projects as designers; at the beginning of the 1980s, Rossi devoted himself to this type of activity by designing miniature architectures for Alessi, creating poetic small-scale domestic landscapes; the Tea & Coffee Piazza project is the realization of this definition.

Piazza Nuova

Stories, activities and projects

A story full of contaminations, therefore. I leave you with a last note: walking towards the park, you can notice a curious conical brick structure dating back to the 1920s, which break the penalty. It is the testimony of its original use, intended for one of the most important activities of Perugia; this brick tower is in fact a find of industrial archaeology: it is one of the old smokestacks of the Perugina confetti and chocolates factory that occupied this place from 1915 (year in which, in addition to the production of sugared almonds, the production line comes into operation cocoa powder and cocoa butter) until 1965, the year of transfer to the new industrial plant in San Sisto.

The original project, which also included the construction of a theater, was never completed and Rossi’s Piazza Nuova never played the role of modern acropolis desired at the time of the project. However, the charm of the monument remains intact. «I have always thought of architecture as a monument… only when it is realized as a monument does it constitute a place». A. Rossi

Rossi’s Piazza Nuova is also destined to have a new redevelopment; in these days, work began on the implementation of a project presented by the municipal administration. Who knows if this place will finally manage to have the long-awaited social and urban role thought by Rossi?