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In
the name of art and music, Cremona and Vienna - the former cradle of
Monteverdi and Stradivari, the latter the second home of Mozart - have
joined forces through the exhibition “Painting music. Posing instruments
in 16th and 17th-cent. art”.
Already
housed in Santa Maria della Pietà, in Cremona, the exhibition has now
opened in the Austrian capital. Organised by Sylvia Ferino-Padgen, and
based on an idea by Luiz Marques, the exhibition, besides being rich
in famous Italian, French, Dutch and Flemish masterpieces (Gigione,
Lotto, Georges de la Tour, Hals, Van Dyke, etc), also presents books,
prints and remarkable antique musical instruments.
It
narrates to visitors the attraction music had for Renaissance and Baroque
painters.
Leonardo,
for instance, also wrote music and tried to bridge the gap between painting
and music, a discipline that has always been placed among the liberal
arts. Vasari himself, in his writings, recalls that when Leonardo abandoned
Florence in 1482 and decided to try his luck in Milan, he presented
himself to Duke Ludovico il Moro, who was still a child, holding a musical
instrument, which he played, astonishing everyone. In the light of the
above, it should be added that artists had always depicted musical instruments
or figures intent on singing and playing; splendours of this type can
be seen in medieval churches, in frescos, gold backgrounds, miniated
pages, choir-stall engravings and relief works.
One
hundred and fifty painting together with other documentary material
and objects reveal how between the 16th and 17th centuries, paintings
centring on musical themes achieved more importance than ever before
in terms of quantity and quality, despite the fact that musical iconography
was already widespread long before then - suffice it to mention Horace’s
motto “Ut pictura poesis”.
Now
let us take a look at the exhibition in greater detail.
The
first section is entitled “Musica picta”. This is split into sub-sections
that provide an idea of how painters had a direct knowledge of and were
familiar with musical instruments, often to be found in their workshops.
This
is shown by the beautiful painting by the master of the Annunciation
to the Shepherds depicting “The painter’s workshop”. Leonardo teaches
how one can be a musician without disdaining to paint a self-portrait.
Also
on show, young Marietta Robusti, daughter of Tintoretto, sitting at
the spinet. Many painters associated with musicians, whose portraits
they then painted. This was the case of Bernardo Strozzi and his Claudio
Monteverdi. Sometimes the metaphoric representation and meaning of the
music went further, pointing to the concentration of a tuner (cat.I.48),
or the well-being that music is about to convey to a sick lover (cat.I.53).
Mythology depicts music as a gentlewoman, but the artists painted her
together with sinuous violas and lutes with shapes reminiscent of the
female body, or flutes that portray male attributes.
The
ancients used music to relate with the gods and the instruments themselves
had their own hierarchy. This was dominated by string instruments based
on the cithara, made from a turtle shell given as a gift by Hermes to
Apollo.
The
second section of the exhibition shows musical myths in painting, with
Apollo associated to the lyre, his quarrels with Marsyas and Pan and
the myth of Orpheus, the first psychotherapist in human history. A painting
by Bernardo Cavallino depicts King David, the Psalmist, who manages
to free Saul from terrible anguish by playing a cithara.
The
third section contains musical instruments, musical angels and shepherds,
judgement-day trumpet players.
Even
the Catholic Church venerates St. Cecilia as the patron of music despite
the fact that this Roman martyr did not know how to play. The paintings
depict sacred music, heavenly music, but also profane music, considering
that for many artists, a close link existed between love and music.
Of strong impact is Titian’s work on loan from the Prado, which celebrates
“Venus and the organist”. Another two sections show music represented
in concert groups, like in the Caravaggio-type Dutch paintings, or as
a “memento” where musical instruments are accompanied by silent still-lives.
Here then are putti with tambourines, divine aspiration of music, fights
between beggar musicians, musical angels.
These
are just some of the themes of music in painting, which is above all
magic and seduction.
(traduzione
Interpres sas-Giussano)
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