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Art Culture

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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Culture Spare Time Tourism

Crushed by an unforgiving international competition, Umbria gave up on the production of silk and focused on sericulture instead: today only an echo of the white silkworms chomping tirelessly on the mulberry leaves remains.

For centuries, wearing silk garments was an exclusive prerogative of the nobility and the wealthy. Goods made of silk, as in the case of other luxury goods, contributed to the social divide and to the distinction in social class.

The silk fever

This radically changed in the beginning of the Eighteenth century, when consumption became less selective. With the desire to imitate the fashion of the great European courts, the shades and patterns of silk cloths began to dominate the wardrobes of the emerging social classes (merchants, government officials, middle class), who also felt obliged to respect social etiquette and show off their status through appearance.

The baroque era introduced new clothes also among men, like stockings, handkerchiefs, vests, undergarments, blouses – all rigorously made out of silk. Though not everyone had the means to buy the best silk imported from oriental Asia, the newly-born fashion industry embraced the silk fever infecting Europe and its colonies as a powerful launching pad. For manufacturing, some European cities such as Lyon and London were especially favored, becoming industrial capitals of silk in the European continent.

The Italian regions, following the general fashion, found space within the silk production chain, whether choosing to work in the delicate phase of silk thread making, or in the agricultural operations of breeding the bombyx mori – the silkworm – on which the whole production depends upon, from raw material to finished product. The region of Umbria too, promptly became part of this new dynamic trade.

 

Silkworm

Umbria’s turnaround

In the middle ages, everyone admired the famous silk veils of Perugia, cloths of exceptional quality, made with silk thread imported mostly from the southern regions of Italy. The silk manufacturers in Perugia, crushed by the international competition, were hit by a crisis during the modern age. When in the 1700s the demand for silk rose again, unlike in the past, Umbria began to produce the raw material. To describe the magnitude of the change running throughout the region, it suffices to notice the suddenly increasing mentions of mulberry tree cultivations in the historical documents. The mulberry leaves are the only viable nutrition when breeding the silkworm, a delicate and special creature. The Umbrian landscape was suddenly filled with mulberries: along roads and boulevards, in private gardens, by the farmhouses, in the olive groves, until it became widespread and familiar. A tree imported all the way from Asia largely contributed to today’s Umbrian landscape’s colors. As an example, the estate of Casalina (near Deruta), owned by the monastery of St. Peter, counted around 10.000 trees. The mulberries grew by the same number as the silkworms, in the attempt to satisfy the growing international demand. The French court and the Papacy encouraged sericulture, setting the groundwork for an economic development in a more industrial fashion.

 

Silk

Silkworm breeding yesterday and today

To this day, the diffusion of the mulberry trees in the rural landscape of Umbria may be easily retraced. Unfortunately, a large number of specimens have been eradicated or barbarically cut down, yet in many cases some still stand with their beautiful and rich foliage, especially in the summer months. It is a tree that though it has lost in time its original purpose – that of guaranteeing a constant replenishment of leaves to feed the silkworm and cocoon – remains the symbol of an era and of the intense economic endeavor for the many farmers’ families involved in the breeding of silkworms.
As the cocoons grew – from one larval age to the other – not only did the consumption of leaves increase, but also the demand for ever larger spaces, until entire rooms, carefully environmentally controlled, were occupied. The most ventilated and well heated rooms in the premises became silkworm nurseries, with stoves and thermometers to control the temperature. At times built as towers, these structures have also contributed to shaping the rural landscape of Umbria: they are the architectonic testament of an economic reality, which in time, has found profound changes
During the summer months, from May to August, everyone in the family would work to replenish the leaf supply – which needed to be fresh and moist-free – clean the trellises to avoid infections, select the best specimens and harvest the ripe cocoons before the chrysalis pierced the protective casing, made of one single extremely thin continuous thread of a length comprised between 300 and 1000 meters. For the distinctive characteristics of the autochthonous silkworm, Umbria became a provider of raw material of excellent quality, resistant to illnesses and infections.
After the growing period was over, the cocoons would be treated by dipping them in hot water before being sold. In the farmer’s homes, special machinery was used either manually or mechanically, to allow the threads to be woven into a thicker one.
A silky white filled the workspaces, recreated today in Bevagna during the annual Medieval Gaite markets, when the Gaita of Saint Mary reenacts with patience and detail the various steps of the silkworm breeding: from the time the larvae are carefully deposited on the mulberry leaf-bed, until their rise into the woods to make the cocoon, from the boiling of the latter to the production of the thread by using a refined hydraulic mill. Scenes and gestures which remind us of the time when the Umbrian farmhouses were filled with the mono-tone and deafening sound of the worms relentlessly chomping down on the tender mulberry leaves.

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Art Culture Tourism

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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Spare Time Tourism Tours

The historical heritage of this city speaks a language of modern inflection. An emotional place, to be saved from oblivion.

«Et maiores et posteros vestros cogitate».
«Think of your ancestors, think of posterity», wrote Publio Cornelius Tacitus and never, like in the case of Carsulae, has it been ever so adequate.
Even though today’s visitors may walk through a site of scattered ruins and remains around 20 hectares large, the compared studies supported by modern technologies (applications and video-mapping especially), are allowing to enjoy a rather complete vision of a sensational place, which deserves to be torn from oblivion.

A salubrious island, florid and welcoming

Built in the vicinity of Interamna Nahars and Casventum, the modern cities of Terni and San Gemini – harbingers of contrasting images of steel mills and mineral water springs – Carsulae is an island in the course of the Roman Flaminia way. Its destiny is consumed along the white cobblestones of the consular road, marked by the furrows of the wagons – and there were many! – built between 220 and 219 b.C. to connect Rome with the northern Adriatic Sea.

The pre-roman populations had understood the opportunity for increasing trade and quality of life and eventually settled closer to the road, building town centers and putting to use the nearby flat lands. Under Emperor Augustus (44 a.C – 14 d.C.), after being recognized as a township, Carsulae reaches its definitive urban layout. The Roman historian Tacitus (Hist. III, 60), together with Plinius the Younger (Ep. I, 4), describe it as florid and hospitable, rich in architectural splendors, salubrious and fertile, speckled with cultivations, vineyards and olive groves, politically active and open to the world.

 

Carsulae, photo by Carsulae site

Teeming with life

What if we were tourists in the age of its maximum splendor? We would be blinded by its white monuments, statues and bright enthusiasm! Let’s try and walk through it all again, walking along the Cardo Maximus (Flaminia road) cutting through the ancient town. There is the San Damiano Arch, suggestive northern gate, built with robust travertine block and inset in a triple-vaulted structure. Beside it, just outside the town perimeter, we find a place of remembrance: the Necropolis, with its sepulchral monuments of illustrious families. In front of the Forum, the basilica – once used as a tribunal – and around it, we can almost hear the sound of passing-by wagons, voices of men, women and children, of deals being struck at the shade of the associations’ guilds. The square, paved in marble and lined with porticos on its longer sides, is embellished by the facades of the public buildings, two twin temples dedicated to Castor and Pollux and the Capitolium, in honor of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. All around, the tight network of the domus, the Roman houses. Social life was enriched by entertainment varied in venues and cruelty. In the theater, harmoniously inserted in the urban context, tragedies, comedies and satires would be staged, while the nearby amphitheater – about 85 meters long and with a dug-out ring built into a natural depression – gladiators would engage in gruesome fights. Among the luxurious urban commodities, the cistern replenished the city with water, also used for the public thermal baths, major attraction for relaxing and socializing time.

 

Carsulae, photo by Carsulae site

End and rebirth

Yet a mist of forgetfulness descended on Carsulae. Between the Fourth and Fifth century A.D. it became an inhospitable place, after an earthquake caused great damage and caused the route of the Flaminian way to be diverted towards Terni and Spoleto.

The white road which had once brought favorable conditions for the city, now concurs to its fall, and Carsulae becomes a mine for construction materials. The archeological digs, started in the Sixteenth century but especially effective between 1951 and 1972, have now allowed the rediscovery of a historical heritage of inestimable value for the province of Terni, which has entrusted its communication to the documentation center U.Ciotti[1].

BOX – The battle of battles

During the winter of 69 A.D., in full Roman civil war, while the generals Vitellus and Vespasian were fighting for power, Carsulae became a crucial player for the faith of Rome and its Empire. After setting up camp on a well-exposed plain with views over Narni, where Vitellus had left some of his cohorts, Antonio Primo, Vespasian’s general, and the lieutenant Arrio Varo decide to scout out the city of Carsulae. After appreciating its beauty and its people’s warm welcome, the two spend a few days in the basilica to plan their strategy – knowing that the soldiers prefer a victory to peace. After laying out a plan and having offered sacrifices to the gods, the battle begins at the shout “Ahead men, fight! As long as you do not want to leave your banner to the enemy”. The victory of Antonio Primo end the civil war will favor the proclamation of Emperor Vespasian.

 

[1] Cfr. www.carsulae.it consulted on 19 July 2019.

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Architecture Culture Tourism

The city art museum in Todi conserves a jewel of the Renaissance architecture: the wooden model of the Tempio della Consolazione.

In the Sixteenth century the production of wooden models and architectural mockups is consistent, for they held a dual purpose: to allow the customers to visualize the project they commissioned and to serve as a guide for the artisans and stone masons, especially when encountering any problems during construction. In 1629, after the monument is completed, the model is carried to Rome by the architect of the Factory of St. Peter Carlo Maderno seeking council for some unfinished work; in 1660 Maderno travels to Rome again seeking advice from Francesco Borromini on how to protect the Temple from moisture.

The travels of the model never ended and in the last few years have increased: among many of the wooden models of Renaissance architecture, Todi’s model is among the few to have been perfectly conserved, and is often requested for important art exhibitions in Italy and abroad. A few examples include The Renaissance, from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 1994, the exhibits in Paris and Berlin, the Milan Triennale, the recent shows in Urbania and Perugia.

 

The restoration of the Temple of the Consolazione, photo by Sandro Bellu

 

In 2007, with the contribution of the Lions Club in Todi, the model underwent a careful and accurate restoration process by the hands of Roberto Saccuman Snc with close surveillance of the Umbrian Cultural Patrimony Superintendence. The restoration was also a moment of study for the University of Tuscia’s Agrarian Faculty, tasked with recognizing the different species of wood, and for its Art History Faculty, assigned with the analysis of pigments. The studies with ultraviolet florescence and infrared reflectography were conducted by Davide Bussolari’s Diagnostics Studio for the Arts Fabbri. The results were surprising and unexpected and Roberto Saccuman, who coordinated and conducted the work with his team, revealed to us the most interesting details and secrets.

The model was made out of poplar tree wood, it measures 120x120x150 centimeters and is composed by a heptagonal base sustaining the central body of the building, the tambour, the dome and the lantern roof.

Through the centuries, the model underwent restorations and retouches, visible especially in the architectural elements rebuilt by using stone pine wood and of a different thickness.

The Southern apse shows a slight difference in craft probably connected to a variation of the project during the construction; there is an indent inside it which was probably made to fit the main door, never completed. The void was filled by using an inferior quality of wood, even if of the same type as the original. All of the model’s mobile components are oriented correctly thanks to a cross-shaped runner etched on the sides; the final lantern roof on the contrary does not have a matching inset.

On the heptagonal base of the monument there are five holes: the central one, square shaped, was probably used to mount the model on a stand for better viewing; the others are placed according to the pillars and are used to correctly insert the base. The orientation of the holes, with their slightly rectangular shape, forbid mistakes during mounting, especially because one of them is oriented differently from the others.

 

The heptagonal base of the monument, photo by Sandro Bellu

 

During restoration, the base was blocked and stiffened by a twin set of large crossbeams and by a peripheral frame, slightly moved towards the back. These superstructures, probably dating back to the nineteenth-century restoration, would prevent it from closing. The recent restoration work removed all the added parts and returned the model to its original function.

By detaching the body of the model, fixed with nails to the base, a drawing of the plant of the building was revealed, invisible to viewers in its entirety since the 1800s. The infrared investigations allowed further understanding by revealing what remained of the old guidelines drawn with graphite pencil, invisible to the eye because covered with a layer of light blue pigment, over the chalk and glue preparation outlining the exact blueprint of the temple.

On the contrary, the ink lines accurately defining the drawing and the metric scale are still quite readable. Interestingly, the date, 3 8bre 1963 L P, was deciphered by applying UV lighting.

The surface of the model had been completely painted: after analyzing it carefully, the body resulted covered in one coat of white color made of calcium carbonate and oil, probably spread in one solution without any preparatory phase. On the domes, a preparatory layer of chalk and animal glue was laid, followed by a layer of pigment composed of indigo and calcium carbonate.

A number of plaster fillings made with Bologna chalk and animal glue, closing the number of crevices and tiny indents on the surface, were consequently retouched with tempera colors. During restoration these materials were greatly altered, giving the artwork into an unfair dark-greyish tint. A careful cleaning of the surfaces, the retrieval of the base’s function, the reconstruction of the missing elements and the chromatic reconstruction have finally returned the model to its ancient beauty.

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Crafts

«Work peacefully and happily, like the stars move: without fury, but never still, on a path that follows the great law». Alice Hallgarten Franchetti

«It is a slowly disappearing art. We are trying to beat time, or even stop it». With these words, the weaving master Maria Menchi Bocciolesi[1] tries to explain the essence of Tela Umbra in a 1962 newspaper clipping[2]. The skills of the weavers and the work of the loom was in danger of being lost, so the author of the article refers to the workers of Tela Umbra as «vestals». At the end of the 19th century, Città di Castello counted 1240 looms, on a population of a little more than 24.000[3]; of course, these were domestic looms, mostly used for linen and hemp, cultivations which were widespread in the area, requiring little attending[4].

 

A business at the heart of Città di Castello

It is in the years of domestic weaving, when the art and knowledge was passed down mother to daughter, that Alice Hallgarten Franchetti came up with the idea of venturing into a proper business with the mission – as clearly stated in its manifest – of «conserving […] the ancient Umbrian art of weaving with hand worked loom and allow women and especially mothers to have a paid job while free of worry for their children, taken care of and fed by the kindergarten made available by the laboratory»[5].

On June 8th[6], 1908 the laboratory was inaugurated, installed at the ground floor of Palazzo Alberto Tomassini. After Alice Hallgarten Franchetti’s death – in 1911 – her husband Leopoldo, who had always supported her emotionally and economically, gave the direction of the laboratory to Maria Pasqui Marchetti, the dear and trusted Marietta to whom Alice had written countless letters, affectionately signing herself as «mamina»[7].

Hand-woven linen since 1908

In 1985 the laboratory, still in its original location, was turned into a cooperative, founded by the workers, the city council of Città di Castello and Sviluppumbria. A museum was also created in the premise. Today Tela Umbra. Hand-woven linens since 1908 is the only active laboratory in Italy of cloths made exclusively in linen, for warp and weft.

 

Weaver at work foto by Tela Umbra

Alice Hallgarten Franchetti[8]

(New York 1874-Leysin 1911)

Alice Hallgarten Franchetti was the daughter of Adolph, of rich bankers’ family, and Julia Norheimer, both German Ashkenazi Jews, and she was born in New York where the family had moved for the father’s work.
In 1882, when Alice was only 8 years old, the father was forced to leave his job due to health reasons, so the family returned to Germany.
On July 9th, 1900, Alice marries Leopoldo Franchetti, Sephardic Jew from Livorno, senator of the New Kingdom of Italy, whom she had met in Rome – where she had moved after living a few years in Frankfurt. They met at the pharmacy of the San Lorenzo neighborhood where they both volunteered as humanitarian and social assistants at the Union of San Lorenzo.

Alice Hallgarten Franchetti

In Città di Castello, Alice and Leopoldo promote a number of educational initiatives for the emancipation of the farmers, especially for women and children. In 1901, Alice founds the Scuola della Montesca, inside the palazzo baring the same name, and later on, the Scuola di Rovigliano, both free of charge for the peasants’ children up to the sixth grade. From 1905, the direction of the schools is entrusted to Maria Pasqui Marchetti, and from 1910 the educational plan is reviewed to fit the Montessori system[9].
In 1908 the laboratory Tela Umbra is born, under an extremely innovative management for those times, as it included a kindergarten for the working women’s benefit. Apart from the nursery school, at Tela Umbra one could also find an evening carpenter school for the youth and a medical consultation ambulatory to learn how to better take care of newborns. Alice Hallgarten Franchetti died of tuberculosis in 1911.

 

[1] To learn about her and the other workers see M. L. Buseghin, La “Tela Umbra” di Città di Castello. Una storia di donne, in «Pagine altotiberine», a. II, n. 6 (sept.-dec. 1998), pp. 123-136.

[2] P. Magi, Un antico laboratorio che ha fermato il tempo. Le “vestali” della Tela Umbra, in «La Nazione», June 15th, 1962.

[3] In 1881 the population counted 24.491 people. The data is collected from A. Tacchini, Le vicende politiche di Leopoldo Franchetti a Città di Castello, in A. Tacchini, P. Pezzino (curated by), Leopoldo e Alice Franchetti e il loro tempo, Petruzzi, Città di Castello 2002 also avialble on the website www.storiatifernate.it.

[4] Cfr. A. Tacchini, Artigianato e industria a Città di Castello tra Ottocento e Novecento, Petruzzi, Città di Castello, 2000, pp. 334-339.

[5] The citation of the Manifest is taken from M. L. Buseghin, Alice Hallgarten Franchetti un modello di donna e imprenditrice nell’Italia tra ’800 e ’900, Pliniana, Selci Lama, 2013, p. 66.

[6] For the date see M. L. Buseghin, Alice Hallgarten Franchetti un modello di donna e imprenditrice nell’Italia tra ’800 e ’900, cit., pp. 67-77.

[7] The letters have been published fully by M. L. Buseghin, Cara Marietta… Lettere di Alice Hallgarten Franchetti, Tela Umbra, Città di Castello, 2002.

[8] For a more detailed biography see M. L. Buseghin, Cara Marietta… Lettere di Alice Hallgarten Franchetti, cit., pp. 467-472 and the website curated by da M. L. Buseghin in http://www.enciclopediadelledonne.it/biografie/alice-hallgarten-franchetti/.

[9] S. Bucci, La Scuola della Montesca. Un centro educativo internazionale, in P. Pezzino, A. Tacchini (curated by), Leopoldo e Alice Franchetti e il loro tempo, cit., pp. 195-242.

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Art Culture

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)

T

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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Art Culture

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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Art Culture

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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Architecture Culture

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

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

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?

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