The Renaissance genius lives again in the Scuderie Juverriane
di // pubblicato il 13 Novembre, 2011
- Translated by Giacomo Alberti -
Pending the inauguration of the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the court of Milan, held at the London National Gallery from the 9th November 2011 to the 5th February 2012, this further prestigious exhibition of global value, executed under the High Patronage of the President of Italian Republic, prepares to celebrate the Italian Renaissance genius and a unanimously recognised myth.
The exhibition Leonardo. Il genio, il mito,(Leonardo. The genius, the myth) mounted in the large rooms of the eighteenth century Scuderia Grande of Federico Juvarra of the complex of the Reggia Venaria, represents both the final chapter of the events program patronised by Comitato Italia 150 for the celebrations of the Italian unification sesquicentennial and a unique opportunity to admire the artistic path of Leonardo da Vinci.
Availing of the direction by the Academy Awards Dante Ferretti, who staged huge Leonardo’s machines as containers for the original oeuvres, a first introductory section presents a reasoned biography which illustrates the social context, the cultural formation background and the various work fields in which the Master operated besides a further physiognomic research on the self-portrait theme in the documentary executed by Piero Angela.
The multimedia space, characterised by a full size digitally animated reproduction of the Leonardo’s Last Supper, enables to analyse in detail the features and the expressions of the characters depicted in the painting. However, this has also been realised thanks to the contribution of Pinin Brambilla Barcillon on the conservation work and the Giulio Manfredi’s installation L’Oro invisibile. Il Cenacolo, Leonardo da Vinci. 12+1 Opere Preziose (The invisible gold. The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci. 12+1 Precious Oeuvres ).
With regard to the section Il mito di Leonardo nel cinema e nella televisione (The myth of Leonardo in cinema and television), a season of movies inspired by the Genius, executed by Armando Colasanti, highlights the influence of Leonardo’s cultural inheritance on modern mass media.
The drawings, which are the very pivotal pieces of exhibition, are displayed to the public in the section Il genio infinito (The infinite genius), executed by Carlo Pedretti, Paola Salvi and Clara Vitulo, where it is possible to admire the Codice del Volo degli Uccelli (Codex on the Flight of Birds) and the Leonardo’s set of thirteen autograph writings belonging to the Biblioteca Reale of Turin, including the renowned Autoritratto. These are contextualised and integrated by prestigious national and international imports, paying a particular attention to the themes of the face, the nature, and the human and mechanical anatomy.
An exhaustive study is dedicated to the role of Leonardo in the arts and culture, emblem of Renaissance genius, in the section Il volto di Leonardo tra realtà e mito (Leonardo's face between realty and myth) executed by Pietro C. Marani, through a selection of oeuvres by artists from the late fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
A chronological itinerary permits to piece together the figure of Leonardo as representative of the Italian character, used with rhetorical function during the pre and post unification period. With a series of oeuvres from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, this section testimonies the importance and the consolidation of the Genius physiognomy between the ancient and modern art and even the Leonardo myth influence in the contemporary art.
This last section is executed by Renato Barilli and starts with the irreverent homage paid by Duchamp (the renowned Mona Lisa parody with moustaches and goatee) and continues with the set of photographic reproductions by Andy Warhol, a theme regained by Spoerri, Nitsch and Recalcati.
Ceroli poses again the Uomo Vitruviano subject, anthropologic canon which goes alongside the physiognomy studies undertaken by the Florentine painter and chosen as a main theme for the Lavater, Goya, Daumier and Grosz typologies. Finally, a precious note by Leonardo invite to read the presence of arcane landscapes on the wall stains, regained by informal artists such as Wols, Tàpies, Rotella, Twombly, Bendini and Novelli.
Therefore, the mounting is presented as variously articulated within classical, philological and hypertext interpretation keys and it represents the result coming from the various technical-scientific advices of authoritative scholars, belonging to Italian and foreigner institutions, which have signed an event of high formative value and of undeniable importance for the Italian cultural heritage valorisation.