Art

It's a widely held belief that if you want to see great art in Italy you should be prepared to elbow your way through throngs of other tourists to get a glimpse of "great works" - and pay a hefty entrance fee to do so.

I almost feel ashamed admitting that we mainly avoid big name galleries in most of the European cities we visit. At first you may grit your teeth and follow the crowd, but you quickly give up on the exercise as being fairly unpleasant and pointless. At least that is how I felt.

Who wants to spend half a day waiting in a queue? And when you do get to see the works on display there is little possibility of having a quiet, personal experience or engagement.

Neither of us could be bothered with the main attractions in Venice and Urbino. We did manage the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Hermitage in St.Petersburg, but honestly, I would have to say smaller, less frequented galleries, were much more rewarding.

We have probably missed out on lot and I can hear the clicking of tongues. But as I mentioned in former posts, midnight strolls and long afternoon explorations on less trodden tracks brought us face to face with some great works of art in Venice, and elsewhere.

While in Le Marche, our drives into the countryside had us stopping at churches dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries, provided many artistic rewards.

I'd suggest it is nearly always by chance that you come across art that really captures your imagination, whether it be in some tiny, crumbling roadside chapel or an obscure municipal museum.
At Macerata, a small Italian city in Le Marche few people seem to visit, I discovered one of the best collections of twentieth century art in the country - greater by far than the Italian works held at the Guggenheim in Venice.

We paid nothing for the privilege of viewing these works and funnily enough were able to enter the Palazzo Ricci on a day when the museum was not meant to be open.

We were on our way back from a stint of supermarket shopping when we saw the door open, made an enquiry and were very politely invited to view the collection ...with no one else present! They even took care of our shopping bags.

On the suggestion of our Italian host, we visited the gallery at Rovereto tucked away in the old town one rainy afternoon. Rovereto was the home of Fortunato Depero, of whom I knew nothing. Like other members of the Italian Futurist school, Depero sought to capture the idea of modernity, the sensations and aesthetics of speed, movement, and industrial development. 

He was employed by Campari in the 20s to create posters and during the war left for America where he worked on covers for Vogue, Vanity Fair and other magazines.

It's interesting to consider the direction Italian futurism took politically, embraced as it was in the 1930s by the Fascists who were similarly enamored with the idea of doing away with old forms, worshipping strength, grandeur, speed and combat.

The slide show I put together (above) shows examples of this.

Renato Di Bosso's, Pattuglia (1939) painted on an irregularly cut canvas is brilliant. It shows four fighter planes being shot down over the Italian landscape - presumably by the "superior" forces of Il Duce out of the frame. It is fabulously conceived and has a very dramatic sense of movement. It is perhaps the best work in the futurist collection at Macerata.

Fascist period architecture is everywhere in Italy, especially Rome, where a whole quarter of the city - the EUR - was designed and built.

It is not just Rome, however, where you will find examples of this aesthetic reflected in its buildings, but even a small lakeside town like Riva del Garda.

The town's most arresting building is not its 16th century church but its 1930s hydro electric station - huge, monumental and sporting a very camp sculptural depiction of electricity!

Posted with Blogsy