PALIO DI SIENA (Palio dell’Assunta)

It is drawing near the date of August 16th, when the Palio di Siena (Palio dell’Assunta) will take place, the most ancient horse race in the world. The Palio is one of the most famous and popular Italian manifestations and it takes place every year on July 2nd (Palio di Provenzano) and August 16th (Palio dell’Assunta). The Palio is an historical secular tradition closely connected with the origin of the “Contrade” of Siena (districts into which the town is divided): ten horses and riders represent ten of the seventeen “Contrade” in a spectacular horse race around Piazza del Campo, which attracts visitors and spectators from around the world. The districts (”Contrade”) are characteristical agonistic institutions each having their own government, oratory, coat of arms, appellations, sometimes titles of nobility, emblems and colours, official representatives, festivities and patron Saints; they have a delimited territory and its population consists of all those people who were born or are living within the topographic limits of the district.

The history of the Palio needs to be searched in medieval traditions, and in the games that

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The battle of the bridge: a tradition in Pisa

On the 29th of June, there will be in Pisa the Battle of the Bridge. It is an historical waking demonstration, which is divided in two different moments: the Historical Procession, which is a sort of large military parade with more than 709 figurants, and the Battle on the Ponte di Mezzo, where the teams of the contending factions show their physical strenght creating a suggestive and impressing athmosphere.

The Battle of the Bridge is a very old tourney, whose first surely-documented edition

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Francis Bacon in Palazzo Reale

Extended until 28th of August the exhibition that Palazzo Reale in Milan, in cooperation with Skira and Arthemisia organizes about Francis Bacon. He is considered the last of the great 20th century masters and the one who could transmit the uneasiness of the modern man in painting.

With this great event, the city of Milan wants to celebrate the centenary of Bacon’s birth that will occurr next year.

The exposition, handled by Professor Rudy Chiappini, shows in an exhaustive way the artistic career of the irish artist through its works coming from the most important museums and collections worldwide.

The core of the artistic display provides for the exposition of over one hundred works, almost all as yet unknown here in Italy, including eighty-two paintings and about fifteen drawings, plus as many objects that are part of the archive material carrying the artist’s mark. More than fifty years of career described by a large number of works which range from paintings to sketches and pictures.

A room of Palazzo Reale presents, for the first time in Italy, the photographic reproduction of Bacon’s studio of London, which was the little microcosm where he lived between 1961 and 1992, the chaotic studio where he kept all his books, papers, sketches, colours, canvases, photographs and notes, and everything else that could be a source of inspiration for him. The show opens with a set of important works on paper, which were only found after the artist’s death and have never been displayed in Italy before. Then it continues with the paintings dating back to the years after the Second World War, when Bacon made himself known at an international level thanks to the “Studies for Figures” and to his “Heads”.

Special attention is given to document Bacon’s activity in the ’50s, which was devoted to portraits made just for his friends or made to order. These paintings are dwelled by blurred and ghastly figures, desfigured and deformed faces and bodies disappearing into the darkness of the background. During the following decade, his characters started appearing in a more definite and lit space and they gain volume and expressiveness. In the great triptychs of the ’70s, his care for individual subjects had become slightly exasperating.

Among the works exposed, we mention in particular “Three Studies of the Male Back” and “Triptych”. Only during the later years of his life, Bacon stopped “fighting” with the characters of his paintings, showing their inner essence and transforming them into a few spots of colour clotted on neutral backgrounds.

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Macchiaioli: Tuscan Art on Exhibition in Venice

Until 27th July at Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti in Venice, an exclusive exhibition is open to the public, and it’s dedicated to the artworks belonging to the great Macchiaioli of Tuscan 19th century: I MACCHIAIOLI CAPOLAVORI DELLA COLLEZIONE MARIO TARAGONI.

It seems to be nothing special, but the real peculiarity of this exhibition is that all the artworks on view come from the private collection of Mario Taragoni, great art collector who, between the 30s’ and the 70s’ gathered a rich collection of works.

The collector’s attention in choosing the works, has always been directed mostly to the Tuscan painting, for which he had a great passion, but in its selection prefered most of all Macchiaioli’s artworks, a painting movement which was born in Florence between the 19th and the 20th century, and whose name was defined by an anonymous reviewer with negative connotation. (more…)

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Pierre Auguste Renoir: Artworks which are witnesses of a journey

He was one of the 19th century art genius, and now Pierre Auguste Renoir’s artworks are in an exhibition in Rome until 29th June at the Complesso of the Vittoriano.

The exhibition is called “La maturità tra classico e moderno” is dedicated to Renoir’s artistic production which followed his journey in Italy, by retracing this phase of his work through an itinerary made up of 150 pictures.

The painter arrived to Italy in autumn 1881, going from the North to the South of the country. Renoir’s journey initially was just a study and work trip, to search inspiration, a motivating force to take himself out of the Impressionist movement.

Inspiration which swept the artist and which came from the vision and study of Italian classic artworks, proved by notes, sketches and drafts gathered in a sort of travel book which Renoir wrote during his stay in italy.

Therefore the exhibition tries to emphasize the importance of this Italian “awakening” of the artist, but also highlights the absolut variety of the artistic genius of Renoir, who during his long career used different tecniques to paint very different subjects.

The exhibition’s artworks which come from prestigious private collections from all over the world, portrait young women in their simple acts and activities but full of sensuality, so…mothers, ladies and children, but also the more recent artworks dedicated to the landscapes. (more…)

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Giacomo Balla: the story of an artist on exhibition in Milan

Until 2nd June 2008 Palazzo Reale in Milan will host an exceptional exhibition dedicated to one of the greatest representatives of Italian Futurism: Giacomo Balla.

At the exhibition called “Giacomo Balla - La Modernità Futurista” (”Giacomo Balla - The Futurist Modernity“) it will be possible admire the whole Balla’s futuristic production, movement to which the artist conformed later than his contemporaries. The exhibition is founded on the study and the analysis of his futuristic artworks, true fount of energy.

Virtuosities of shapes and colours, broken shapes which give movement to the pictures. Artworks which still talk about sensations and shivers, maybe because of Balla’s previous artworks.

Spectators can admire about 200 artworks on exhibition, and for this occasion they will have the chance to retrace the whole artistic itinerary of the painter, highlighting the crucial moments of change.

The exhibition’s journey (more…)

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Science seen through “Galileo’s telescope”

A unique special event which honors one of the men who changed history: “Galileo’s Telescope” is on view at Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence from 4th March to 31st December 2008.

The exhibition’s aim is to emphasize the evolution of scientific researches made by Galileo, and his genial intuitions which lead him to the construction of the first telescope (inspired by simple objects made up of two tubes endowed with lenses which at the time were sold on the streets of Venice), which were followed by important astronomic discoveries, which still today cover our astronomy books pages.

The exhibition, made up of five sections, is dedicated to the researches and experimentations which helped the Tuscan scientist to become one of the most important personages in the world scientific environment, and it gives all visitors the chance to watch closely really important objects, as the objective lens and the only two Galileo’s telescopes existing in the world. (more…)

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Photograph - International Festival of Rome

“Fotografia-Festival Internazionale di Roma” comes back with its 7th edition. The event is dedicated to the exposition of the most original and brilliant photos of contemporaneous affirmed and emerging photographers, who every year get inspiration from a particular topic.

This year, as the artistic director Marco Delogu decided, the king of the castle will be Normality. Clicks of lived life, stolen to the everyday life, moments, split seconds of a day trapped into a click. Nort even an extravagance or peculiarity, normality only, this is the mentality of the new edition of the International Festival of Rome which every year awards the best talents of photography.

Supported by the town council of Rome with the production of Zoneattive, this year the Festival will be divided into three different exhibition’s itineraries according to the category, therefore it will be housed in three different seats: Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the Museum of Rome in Trastevere, an area on the west bank of the river Tevere, and the National Gallery of Modern Art.

At Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in a manner of speaking the centre of the manifestation, the photos of three young photographers will be exhibited; they are Paolo Woods, Leonie Purchas e Lucia Nimcowa, whose creations contribute to enrich tinternational artistic background of photography.

The Museum of Rome in Trastevere instead will house more accurate and laborious clicks of photographers who are already affirmed and who directed their attention to war, joy and pains of our society. (more…)

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Art 2008: international crafts in Florence

ART 2008, the market exhibition of international Crafts, comes back to Florence at Fortezza da Basso from 25th April to 4th May.
It is now a habitual appointment between the city of Florence and Art, the most famous craft fair in the world, which every year gathers the best craft creations exhibited along an itinerary characterized by inspiration and originality.
Art, to which this year about 800 among Italian and foreign exhibitors take part, represents a real match point between demand and offer, between the craft businesses and the most affectionate consumers, who, absorbed in a scenary of innovation and steady evolution, will have the chance to choose between several craft products, from typical food, to special gifts and jewels.
The market exhibition of international Crafts (more…)

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Sebastiano del Piombo on Exhibition in Rome

The city of Rome is proud to host in the wonderful halls of Palazzo Venezia until 18th May , the artworks which belong to one of the 16th century greatest Italian artists, Sebastiano del Piombo.

The exhibition, the first monosgraph dedicated do the painter, goes over about 80 artworks, from the artist’ paintings (paintings on board, small paintings on slate, life size portraits) to other artworks by comparison, useful to understand and to underline the artistic genius Del Piombo.

Moreover, in order to allow the spectator to retrace the artistic itinerary of the painter, the exposure is branched, with a path which goes from the first lightful, great and coloured artworks, to the last productions, abstract geometrical shapes dipped with dull shades.

Sebastiano Luciani (this is the real name of the artist), was born in Venice in 1484, and spent most of his artistic life in Rome, where in 1531 it was given to him the qualification of ‘papal piombatore’ (minister of justice who took care of papal bulls and apostolic letters), from which the nickname “del Piombo” results, by which he’s known all over the world. (more…)

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