At Santa Maria della Scala from 17 October to 30 March 2025, an unprecedented journey through the masterpieces of twentieth-century Italian art: two contemporary art collections open to the public for the first time.
One hundred and twenty works tell the story of half a century of Italian art at the Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. The exhibition “CONSTELLATIONS. Italian art 1915-1960 from the Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Cesare Brandi Collections”, curated by Prof. Luca Quattrocchi, Professor of History of Contemporary Art at the University of Siena, presents, in nine sections, an exhibition itinerary in period between the years of the Great War and the early Sixties: from the “return to order” to the “Twentieth Century”, from the Roman School to the “Italiens de Paris”, from realism to abstractionism and the informal. Promoted by the Municipality of Siena, the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation, the Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala Foundation, the National Museums of Siena and the University of Siena, the exhibition was produced by the Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala Foundation and by Opera Laboratori with the organization of Vernice Progetti Culturali. The exhibition project, accompanied by the catalog published by Sillabe, boasts a scientific committee composed of: Laura Bonelli, Axel Hémery, Luca Quattrocchi and Chiara Valdambrini. The lending institutions include Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the National Museums of Siena.
An unprecedented journey among the masterpieces of twentieth-century Italian art: two contemporary art collections open to the public for the first time. From the vaults of the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and from the prized collection of Cesare Brandi, the works of great artists arrive at the Santa Maria della Scala: Carrà, Guttuso, Sironi, Donghi, De Pisis, Burri, Severini, Campigli, Morandi, Rosai, Viani, Levi, Mafai, Manzù, Marini, Afro, Scialoja, Turcato and many others. The exhibition, curated by Luca Quattrocchi, traces an unprecedented “constellation” through Italian art from the years of the Great War to the early Sixties: from “Novecento” to Déco, from “Italiens de Paris” to propaganda art fascist, from the Roman School to realism, abstraction and informalism. The Monte dei Paschi di Siena Collection and the Brandi Collection preserve authentic masterpieces from this half century: many works are presented here for the first time to the public, in a close dialogue that distills Italian artistic experiences in the short century. Not only that: together with the great names of Italian art of the 20th century, a selected group of Sienese and Tuscan artists is also exhibited: an open and surprising dialogue. The first section, Around the Great War, brings together works from the 1910s with slightly later works which commemorate the First World War and its consequences: the section is dominated by Pascucci’s monumental painting The Return of the Hero (1926) which, exhibited at Casa del Fascio in Siena and immediately purchased by Monte dei Paschi, as the curator specifies “on the one hand it closes the season of nineteenth-century naturalism, and on the other it testifies to the growing pervasiveness of fascism in institutions”.
In the second section, The Twenties: returns to order between the twentieth century and Déco, the recovery of tradition encouraged by the regime is declined according to the “twentieth century” promoted by Margherita Sarfatti, according to the atmospheres of “magical realism” of metaphysical ancestry, but also in a classicism updated by Déco-style synthesis. The third section, however, is dedicated to the heterogeneous group of Italiens de Paris: Tozzi, Severini, De Pisis, interpret as Quattrocchi underlines “each in their own way the desire to combine Italianity and cosmopolitanism in contemporary mythologies, receiving great critical attention in the capital French between the end of the twenties and the thirties“. The fourth section, The Thirties and early Forties: between academia and archaisms, offers an exemplification of the positions in fascist Italy, from those most adhering to the official ‘twentieth century’, with also neo-seventeenth century declinations, to the more original archaicizing line, encouraged by the examples of Etruscan, Egyptian and Romanesque art. The fifth section concerns Art for the regime: works of open celebration of the fascist dictatorship, between propaganda and mythologizing of the Duce and his ‘conquests’, from the newly founded cities to the colonial wars and the proclamation of the Empire. The sixth section is dedicated to the landscape: The landscape in the Thirties and Forties between representation and metaphor, where a more traditional and faithful depiction of nineteenth-century origin, which however lights up in some views with almost visionary accents, is flanked by landscapes-states of mind of alienating mental extraction up to the chaste and intense lyricism of those of Morandi. The seventh section crosses the expressive line between the Thirties and Forties, from anti-twentieth centuryism to its continuations in the immediate post-war period: at the opening one of Viani’s last masterpieces (Le Apuane, ca. 1933), accompanied by a rare surrealist example and a large group of works attributable to the Roman School and its more or less expressionistically accentuated and insurgent figuration (Levi, Guttuso, Afro, Fazzini, Scialoja, Sadun, Mafai). In continuity with the previous one, the eighth section, Post-war figurations and realisms, opens with Bozzolini’s Expressionist Rubbles, to then document the persistence in liberated Italy of the variously expressed objective data, the neorealist trend and, at the end of the fifties , the existential realism of Guttuso and Vespignani. Finally, the ninth section, Dissolution and autonomy of form: towards abstraction, follows the path of some authors already present in previous sections towards abstract and informal approaches, to which Burri and Leoncillo are added, to conclude with the triumph of matter-colour in Sadun and Turcato in the early sixties. “In the staging of Costellazioni – specifies the curator – a horizontal perspective was therefore favored in combining local production and the works of artists recognized on a national level, not in an uncritical parataxis but in the belief that the artistic production of a historical period is not understandable (and therefore correctly evaluated) through the sole study of excellences and emergencies, but through the connections that such emergencies have with other figures, secondary or even minor”. “The Costellazioni exhibition proposes – concludes the curator – a map that unfolds over half a century of Italian art in which the stars of greatest luminosity, to be recognized both in the main centers of production and in the most illustrious artists, are seen as part, precisely , of larger and more complex constellations”.
STATEMENTS
“The exhibition demonstrates how the intentions of collaboration between institutions that the Municipality collects, promotes and accompanies can be translated into concrete action in favor of the city, with the desire to enhance the different expressions of Sienese culture, an unparalleled wealth whose undoubted potential in parts that are still unexpressed deserve to be implemented, updated and systematized. The Sienese, scholars, enthusiasts and curious travellers, are thus offered the opportunity to enjoy the charm and value of works of art that are unknown to many, which largely come out of storage and are presented to the general public, in in some cases for the first time, in a place dedicated to beauty, hospitality, uninterrupted dialogue between past, present and future”. Nicoletta Fabio, Mayor of Siena
“Fondazione Mps is strongly committed to valorising the vast artistic heritage of Banca MPS thanks to a collaboration agreement, which has as its first objective making the numerous works preserved within it accessible to the general public. With this premise, the “Costellazioni” exhibition was born, which offers works from the Banca MPS collection and that of Cesare Brandi dedicated to the artistic period of the twentieth century. An occasion which once again saw a fruitful synergy between the Mps Foundation and Vernice Progetti Culturali with many city institutions, such as the Municipality of Siena, the Antico Spedale Santa Maria della Scala Foundation, the University of Siena, the National Museums of Siena and Opera Laboratori to trigger a virtuous process for an economic impact and an image impact that are certainly advantageous for our community”. Carlo Rossi, president of the MPS Foundation
“This meeting of all the positive energies of the city is the only one that is successful. As for the exhibition Sienese art in the MPS collections of 2022, the study of the works was entrusted by a University professor (here Luca Quattrocchi) to young doctors and doctoral students from the Sienese University. The National Museums of Siena are proud to participate in this virtuous initiative and to present some masterpieces from the Brandi Collection in the Sienese and national context of the 20th century which contributes to understanding both its specificity and its universal character. This operation accompanies the progressive rebirth of Villa Brandi, increasingly open to the Sienese public”. Axel Hémery, Director of the National Museums of Siena
“This exhibition, Costellazioni, invites us to reflect on how the movements and connections between twentieth-century works of art continue to shape our contemporary imagination. The Santa Maria della Scala Museum Complex, with its centuries-old history, therefore becomes the ideal space to promote this dialogue. Here, the works of art of the twentieth century, like fragments of a sky still in movement, dialogue not only with each other, but with today’s public, who looks at them with new eyes and suggests new questions. It is precisely in this ability to continually make us question ourselves that the strength of art lies: it is never confined to the past, but guides us in the present and projects us towards the future”. Cristiano Leone, President of the Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala Foundation
“The choice to call the exhibition Costellazioni can be inspired by the detailed and meticulous work conducted by its curator, Luca Quattrocchi, and by the numerous young scholars who collaborated. It seems clear to me, in fact, that the task carried out was also to reconstruct the design of a work, its origin, its characteristics and therefore of the complex of works that are part of the exhibition and which reconstruct a part of Italian art between 1915 and 1960″. Roberto Di Pietra, Rector of the University of Siena
“After the signing of the protocol last June which saw the virtuous collaboration between bodies, institutions and cultural realities, we can admire the richness of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Cesare Brandi collections displayed in the rooms of the Ancient Hospital of Siena. The Costellazioni exhibition is the result of synergistic work with a common objective which is to enhance, promote and disseminate Italian art by recounting a particular period such as that which goes from the great war to the economic boom. The works were chosen with a careful eye capable of favoring masterpieces but also lesser-known but equally important and identifying works because they are an expression of a territory”. Beppe Costa, president and CEO of Opera Laboratori
Useful information for the visit
“CONSTELLATIONS. Italian art 1915-1960 from the Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Cesare Brandi Collections” Santa Maria della Scala Museum Complex
Piazza Duomo, 1 53100 Siena
16 October: press conference and inauguration
17 October 2024 – 30 March 2025
Opening hours until October 31st
Monday – Sunday 10am – 7pm
Winter hours from November 1st
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 10am – 5pm
Tuesday: CLOSED
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: 10am-7pm
from 23 December to 6 January: every day 10am – 7pm.
From 21 to 28 January 2025: closed
Promoting and organizing by Municipality of Siena, MPS Foundation, National Museums of Siena, University of Siena, “Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala” Foundation and Opera Laboratori S.p.A.,
By Luca Quattrocchi
Scientific Committee Laura Bonelli, Axel Hemery, Luca Quattrocchi, Chiara Valdambrini
Tickets
Full price: €13
Reduced: €9
Reduced price for students: €5
Free
Educational workshops: €5
Information and Reservations
Call center: Tel: +39 0577 286300
Email: booking@operalaboratori.com
Bookings for educational and teaching workshops Mon. Wed. Fri. from 9am to 1pm Tel: +39 0577 534531 Email: education@santamariadellascala.com
Ufficio Stampa
Andrea Acampa 3481755654 a.acampa@operalaboratori.com
Andrea Ceccherini 3392545773 a.ceccherini@operalaboratori.com
Giacomo Luchini 3494942535 g.luchini@operalaboratori.com
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