scheda_tecnica.pdf

elenco_opere.pdf

specifications.doc

Pre-Raphaelite works list .doc

The Pre-Raphaelites and the Italian dream from Fra Angelico to Perugino, from Rossetti to Burne-Jones, curated by Colin Harrison, Christopher Newall and Claudio Spadoni and organised by the Ravenna Municipal Administration, the Culture Service, the Museo d'Arte della città and the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, with the generous support of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, will be held at the MAR from 28 February - 6 June 2010, and from 15 September - 5 December 2010 at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The exhibition project is an inquiry into Italy's artistic and cultural role in the movement known as "Preraphaelism", founded in England in the second half of the 19th century. The movement emerged as a response to official academicism with the aim of recovering a spontaneous art inspired by nature, identified with the art of painters prior to Raphael, as the name suggests.
Brilliancy of colours, attention to natural details, extreme simplicity and intensity of expression were the elements of mediaeval painting that fascinated this group of young English artists headed by William Holman Hunt.
With its art, landscapes, literature and history Italy was the central point of their inspiration: they sought to guide the reform of English painting in the direction of emotively sincere and personal subjects, rejecting the conventional images linked with academic method.
One of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was Dante Gabriel Rossetti: son of an Italian exile he found one of his main sources of inspiration in Dante and created a magnificent series of watercolours and oil paintings illustrating key episodes of The Divine Comedy. Burne-Jones too created works drawn from subjects connected with Italian literature.
Though Pre-Raphaelite artists were initially inspired by the example of Italian art (with reference to the mediaeval and pre-Renaissance period), from the late 1850's their attention turned to 16th century painting, especially Venetian. Works like Hunt's Dolce Far Niente are unimaginable without the example of Mannerism, while Rossetti's Aurelia(Lover Fazio) employs the language of Venetian painting in erotic settings.
In the end Preraphaelism mutated into what is generally known as the Aesthetic Movement: the writings of critics such as Algernon Swinburne and Walter Pater on the Italian Renaissance were a reference point for English painters seeking to free their work from prosaic narrative subjects.
John Ruskin gave critical support to the Pre-Raphaelites and also inspired a group of artists to visit Italy in that period: their intention was to carry out a careful study of nature and document architecture and works of art for the benefit of an English public who would never have the chance to see such places. A certain number of artists worked directly for Ruskin, documenting buildings and paintings which the scholar believed to be in danger due to imprudent restoration or neglect over the years. These artists included G. P. Boyce, J. W. Inchbold and J. Brett, together with J. W. Bunney, F. Randal and A. Burgess who made drawings for students at Oxford.
So the exhibition pursues these two main themes: the Pre-Raphaelites' interest in Italian art and literature - with important works by Fra Angelico, Perugino and others on show - and their depiction of the Italian landscape.
The high point of the Pre-Raphaelites' interest in Italy may be seen in the mosaics of the American Church in Rome (San Paolo fuori le mura), the work of Burne-Jones at the end of the 1880's. The exhibition includes cartoons and preparatory drawings for this project which are rarely available to the public.
Works of the Etruscan school will also be on show, a group of artists inspired by the Italian painter and patriot Giovanni Costa. Artists who believed in Italy's right to independence and expressed affection for their country in moving, panoramic landscapes.

The exhibition enjoys the patronage of the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and British Embassy, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Regione Emilia-Romagna e Provincia di Ravenna.

The catalogue will be published by Silvana Editoriale, with contributions from Maurizio Isabella, "Patriottismi incrociati: Italia e Inghilterra nel lungo Ottocento"; Martin McLaughlin, "I Preraffaelliti e la letteratura italiana"; Claudio Spadoni, "Sull'incerta fortuna dei Preraffaelliti in Italia"; Colin Harrison, "I Preraffaelliti e l'arte italiana prima e dopo Raffaello"; Christopher Newall, "I Preraffaelliti e l'Italia".

MAR - Ufficio relazioni esterne e promozione
Nada Mamish - Francesca Boschetti
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Ufficio stampa:

Studio Esseci di Sergio Campagnolo
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fax +39.049.655098
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