Ponti

Rome – It was 1904 when Virginia Stephen, not yet Woolf, and the orphaned brothers Vanessa, Thoby and Adrian, left the high-rise Kensington to move to the Bloomsbury neighborhood where, the following year, a large group of young women and men he began to meet in the building at 46 Gordon Square to invent a new and free life.
Until 12 December that cenacle in which new forms of life and thought took root that would change Victorian principles and the strong patriarchal spirit that the twentieth century was still imbued with, will revive in Rome thanks to the exhibition Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury. Inventing Lifea project of the National Roman Museum and the Electa publishing house, created in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London.

George Charles Beresford, Virginia Woolf, 1902, vintage instant print, 10.8 x 15.2 cm, London, National Portrait Gallery © National Portrait Gallery, London

The path, set up in the rooms of Palazzo Altemps – born as a noble house in the heart of Rome that has hosted prestigious literary salons and in the past hosted a prestigious library, as well as assisting, in whose church of Clemenza and Sant’Aniceto kept inside , at the wedding between Gabriele D’Annunzio and Maria Hardouin di Gallese in 1883 – was conceived and curated by Nadia Fusini in collaboration with Luca Scarlini.
The tale of Bloomsbury’s figures comes to life in the five “rooms” – the same ones that Virginia Woolf intended as secret, protected spaces, in which to affirm one’s identity and create one’s freedom – set up at Palazzo Altemps. And the public is invited to share with the young intellectuals who met in the Stephen sisters’ rooms those same artistic preferences, romantic relationships, innovative work experiences, social motivations.
Guests also included John Maynard Keynes, who revolutionized economic thinking by laying the foundations of the welfare state, and Roger Fry, critic and painter, who created another way of looking at and creating works of art.
But what shone was Virginia Woolf, the writer who opens up to Modernism, “the artist who, thanks to the shrewd use of language, builds worlds of vision, as painters create worlds of thought with color and brush” as Nadia Fusini writes in essay from the catalog.

Ray Strachey, Vanessa Bell, late 1920s, Oil on cardboard, 40.6 x 55.9 cm, London, National Portrait Gallery, gift of Barbara Strachey (Halpern, formerly Hultin), 1999 © National Portrait Gallery, London

If the exhibition opens with an explicit reference to Virginia Woolf’s essay published in 1929, in a section entirely dedicated to the English writer, a verse taken from Lost pains of love by Shakespeare gives its title to the room dedicated to the characters of Bloomsbury, in which excellent loans from the National Portrait Gallery in London allow you to tell the lives of these special, eccentric people. And love is perceived in the air as a creative freedom, which is expressed through decorative inventions that transform wardrobes, tables, chairs, armchairs into works of art.

Lady Ottoline Morrell, Simon Bussy, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, 1922, vintage bromide print, 33.7 x 28.6 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London, acquired with the help of Friends of the National Libraries and Helen Gardner Bequest, 2003 © National Portrait Gallery, London

If the third section, Hogarth Press, reconstructs the history of the publishing house founded in 1915 when Leonard and Virginia Woolf decide to buy a press, Roger Fry and post impressionism lead the audience into the fourth room. The art critic, historian, painter Roger Fry made his country discover the great modern French painting. Between 1910 and 1911 he exhibited in London twenty-one Cézanne, thirty-seven Gauguin, twenty Van Gogh, including sunflowers, and again Picasso and Matisse. Virginia Woolf and many of the Bloomsbury youths recognize the revolutionary significance of those works. But Roger Fry did more. It was he who founded an atelier in 1913 under the direction of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, a workshop where artists anonymously created beautiful objects designed to bring joy to everyday life. Unfortunately, the adventure will last only six years, broken by the war.
The last section of the exhibition, Omega Workshopsremembers these six years that changed the taste of the time during which Great Britain welcomed the suggestions of French painting and literature into design and fashion.
To tell, deepen and celebrate the fascinating history of the Bloomsbury group, the National Roman Museum and the Electa publishing house with the support of the Italian Virginia Woolf Society propose a varied program of cultural events linked to the themes of the exhibition, while Nadia Fusini and Luca Scarlini will meet the public at Palazzo Altemps in a series of appointments.

Read also:
• Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury. Inventing life

Il fotografo paesaggista dell’anno mira a ispirare il coinvolgimento con il paesaggio britannico attraverso la fotografia. Diamo un’occhiata ai vincitori di tutte le categorie.

Gannets Overhead, Thomas Easterbrook – vincitore, gioventù in bianco e nero

“Ho scattato questa foto delle due sule mentre volavano sopra le nostre teste quando eravamo su una barca appena al largo della costa della Cornovaglia. Un gran numero di sule si stava tuffando intorno a noi: uno spettacolo spettacolare!”

Di più: Fotografo paesaggista dell’anno h/t: custode

Spring Hares, Thomas Easterbrook – vincitore, gioventù la tua opinione

“Ho scattato questa foto di queste lepri marroni a Norfolk nella primavera di quest’anno. Le lepri si stavano divertendo a stare in questo prato umido e noi siamo stati lì per circa un’ora a guardarle”

A pieno carico, Kevin Williams – vincitore, vita urbana

“Il porto di Felixstowe, Suffolk”

Bladerunner, Cal Cole – vincitore, vita urbana giovanile

“Grattacieli di nuova costruzione in una notte d’inverno”

Highlands, Jian Hui Mo – vincitore, vista classica giovanile

“Durante l’arrampicata a Glencoe, in Scozia, ho notato questa foschia blu in lontananza, che avvolgeva il paesaggio nel mistero. Sono passato al mio obiettivo lungo e ho scattato questa immagine sul lago”

Loch Awe, Damian Waters – vincitore, linee nel paesaggio

“Avevo concepito questa immagine nella mia testa prima di arrivare sul posto e avevo controllato l’orario di partenza del treno da Loch Awe. Il treno era in ritardo e pensavo che la serata si sarebbe avvicinata troppo in fretta, ma il treno è uscito dall’oscurità appena in tempo”

Mulino a vento nella nebbia, Itay Kaplan – vincitore, storica Gran Bretagna

“Dovevo viaggiare per lavoro, quindi ho deciso di iniziare molto presto per fotografare l’alba. A causa delle previsioni di nebbia, ho deciso di visitare un noto bosco nelle vicinanze, ma lungo la strada mi sono reso conto di aver dimenticato le mie scarpe da trekking, quindi il bosco non avrebbe funzionato. Fortunatamente, ho sempre un piano B, quindi ho aggiunto altri 10 minuti al mio viaggio per visitare questo bellissimo mulino a vento e scattare questa foto”

Oh! Limpet Games, Simon Turnbull – vincitore, il tuo punto di vista

“Adoro trovare piccoli dettagli nella natura. Ho scoperto questa scena girovagando lungo la bellissima costa del Devon. La formazione rocciosa con le sue linee e i suoi colori intriganti ha fornito una composizione meravigliosa, le patelle aggiungono storia e interesse, scivolando giocosamente lungo il canalone come una squadra di bob olimpica”

Dawn Reflection, Natasha Burns – vincitrice assoluta dei giovani

“Alba d’inverno che spunta a Loch Creran, Argyll”

Souls Tied, Paul Killeen – vincitore, in bianco e nero

“Questa è un’immagine molto toccante e personale. Una buona amica di mia moglie è purtroppo morta nel 2021. A Lynsey è stato diagnosticato un tumore al cervello nell’ottobre 2015. Quando le è stato diagnosticato, è stata informata che sarebbe stata fortunata a vedere il Natale quello stesso anno. Tuttavia, Lynsey ha combattuto coraggiosamente contro il cancro per cinque anni e mezzo prima di morire l’11 aprile 2021. Questa immagine è stata realizzata il 14 aprile 2021, la mattina del funerale di Lynsey. Non appena ho visto i due uccelli volare nella mia cornice, mi sono subito ricordato di Lynsey e di suo marito, Simon”

Ascensione, Demiray Oral – vincitore, visione classica

“Sapevo che erano previsti temporali, quindi quando ho visto il loro percorso lungo le finestre di sole e dove questo sarebbe sfondato sulle app meteo pertinenti, ho deciso di andare ad aspettare che apparisse un arcobaleno in uno dei miei luoghi preferiti. Anche se non sono rimasto sorpreso quando è successo, non riuscivo ancora a credere a ciò che si svolgeva davanti a me. L’apparizione dell’arcobaleno è stata meravigliosa, ma la luce che ha attraversato la schiena del drago è stata semplicemente sensazionale… È stato un pomeriggio emozionante che non dimenticherò mai”

Brecon in Winter, Will Davies – vincitore assoluto

“La luce del sole dell’alba riscalda una mattina d’inverno a Brecon Beacons. Questa immagine è stata scattata dal forte di Pen-y-Crug, che offre uno spettacolare panorama di Brecon e delle montagne circostanti. In questa mattina di dicembre, la luce del sole ha fatto irruzione in una tempesta di neve che si stava schiarindo, aggiungendo una meravigliosa esplosione di calore e colore alla scena. Ho usato un teleobiettivo per aiutare a comprimere i campi illuminati dal sole e le lontane colline innevate”

One hundred and thirty shots to celebrate one of the fathers of twentieth century photography: precious black and white prints with silver salts have landed in Turin from the collection of the Atelier Robert Doisneau in Montrouge, in the South of France, where for over fifty years the master he printed and archived his images, leaving a legacy of 450,000 negatives and an incredible amount of vintage prints. Curated by Gabriel Bauret and recently inaugurated in the Turin spaces of Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, until February 14th the exhibition invites you to take a complete journey into the work of the great humanist photographer and pioneer of street photojournalism.

Robert Doisneau, Le baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris 1950 © Robert Doisneau

The Kiss at the Hotel de Ville, which made him famous in the world, certainly cannot be missing. But it’s time to go ahead and rediscover Doisneau’s research in all his richness, between famous shots and little-known pearls that all have a story to tell.

Robert Doisneau, Le vélo de Tati, Paris 1949 © Robert Doisneau / Gamma Rapho

“If there is someone I adore, that is Doisneau”, said the great Henri Cartier-Bresson: “The intelligence, the depth of Doisneau, his humanity. He is a wonderful man ”. Whether it is photos taken on commission or during his wanderings around Paris, Doisneau told about his time letting himself be guided by disobedience and curiosity, in his opinion “the two fundamental requisites in this profession”.

Robert Doisneau, Un regard oblique, Paris 1948 © Robert Doisneau

Walking with him were often the writer friends Jacques Prévert, Robert Giraud and Blaise Cendars: “when I found an image I thought of one of them, who was the first to whom I showed it”, said Doisneau: “A little I owed it to them, because they were the ones who taught me to see ”.

Robert Doisneau, L’enfer, Paris 1952 © Robert Doisneau

In Turin his free and empathic gaze returns to tell the story of war and liberation, work, love, street games, but also art, fashion, music. Along the way of the exhibition we will meet characters such as Yves Montand, Juliette Gréco, Pablo Picasso, and above all crowds of anonymous passers-by, porters, brats surprised in the freshness of everyday life, in a realistic and poetic cross-section of an era and its humanity.

Robert Doisneau, Le ruban de la mariée, Saint Sauvant 1951 © Robert Doisneau / Gamma Rapho

Eleven sections mark the visitor’s journey in Robert Doisneau’s Paris: it starts with children, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the French photographer, to go on with themes such as “Occupation and Liberation”, “The postwar period”, “Street theater” , “Bistrot”, “A certain idea of ​​happiness”. An excerpt from the film Robert Doisneau, le révolté du merveilleux (Robert Doisenau. The lens of wonders), created in 2016 by the granddaughter of the master Clémentine Deroudille, finally invites us to go beyond images to come into direct contact with the great humanist photographer and fully understand his work.

Robert Doisneau, Caniveau en crue, Paris 1934 © Robert Doisneau

Originario di Nantes, Jean ha conseguito una laurea in grafica a Quimper prima di trasferirsi a Londra. Da allora si è laureato alla Central Saint Martins (2008) e al Royal College of Art (2010).

La sua pratica spazia dalla pittura e illustrazione alla fotografia, video, costumi, installazioni, libri, poster e abbigliamento per creare un corpus di opere coerente ma eclettico.

Jean ha mostrato lavori in tutto il mondo con musei e gallerie a Parigi, Londra, Bruxelles, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Berlino, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore e oltre.

Di più: Jean Julien, Instagram h/t: la griglia di ispirazione

Rome – An unusual Judith on her knees, immersed in the prayer that precedes the execution of Holofernes, illuminates the Belgian black marble on which Jacques Stella, between 1630-1631, immortalized the scene.
It resembles a martyr more than an executioner, surrounded by a careful play of lights and reverberations typical of the Baroque theater, while three angels play with the weapon that will soon sever the head of the biblical leader.
In this evocative nocturnal image of Giuditta, the glow of the painted candle illuminates the protagonist and makes the golden textures of the fabrics shine, while the mirrored surface of the stone reflects the real lights of the environment.
Marvel is really the right word to describe the exhibition since October 25 to January 29 there Borghese Gallery dedicates to stone painting in Rome between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And not only for the numerous masterpieces arrived from Italian and foreign museums, as well as from important private collections. In this complex journey of research and discovery, which transforms the paintings into authentic allegories, the eye is invited, more than usual, to think about the materials, to capture, scrutinize, abstract and interpret the meanings hidden behind the stones. It is enough to take some time to enter face to face with the work and associate a meaning to a specific subject depicted in an era in which painting on stone meant making painting eternal, challenging time and sculpture itself.

Leonardo Grazia, Lucrezia, Oil on blackboard, Galleria Borghese, Rome | Photo: © A. Novelli © Galleria Borghese

A necessary sixteenth-century premise that testifies how the use of metals and marbles as a support to painting contributed to making the memory of a character lasting characterizes the first section of the itinerary, The painted stone and its inventor. Thus the Portrait of Roberto by Filippo Strozzi by Francesco Salviati on African marble alongside that of Cosimo de Medici, on red porphyry, attributed to Bronzino or even the Portrait of Pope Clement VII with a beard by Sebastiano del Piombo who gives the pontiff, through the hardness of the slate, the severe aspect, a symbol of moral solidity.

On the other hand, it was Piombo who rediscovered the practice of painting on stone, already known to the ancients, before the sack of Rome in 1527. After the terrible event, the painter and his clients were under the illusion that the stone supports would have made the indestructible painting, therefore eternal.

Antonio Tempesta, Perseus and Andromeda (recto), tempera and oil on lapis lazuli, Galleria Borghese, Rome | Photo: © A. Novelli © Galleria Borghese

At the entrance of the magnificent Hall of the Borghese Gallery the ticking of the night clock with Tanatos, the three Moiras and Ipno welcomes visitors challenging the passage of time with the solidity of lapis lazuli and the hardness of jasper. Next to it, the Borghese-Windsor cabinet in fir and poplar, inlaid with semiprecious stones, originally probably made for the Portuguese Luigi Gomez, is an extraordinary example of Roman manufacture, now in the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The reliquary shrine with theAdoration of the Magi with its splendor of stones it evokes the radiance of the faith of the saints, while in theAllegory of sleep by Alessandro Algardi black marble recalls the darkness of the night, and just as the touchstone was used to test the purity of gold, the work is now called upon to reveal the skills of the artist maliciously criticized by Bernini for not know how to sculpt.

The exhibition curated by Francesca Cappelletti and Patrizia Cavazzini continues on the first floor. Powers are sometimes attributed to stone or marble. And here are the Talismans or the incorruptible images of devotion, often part of the furnishings of the bedrooms of the cardinals, such as theAdoration of the Magi (1605 – 1620) on alabaster by Antonio Tempesta or the Madonna and Child with Saint Francis (1605 c.) By Antonio Carracci, painted on copper.

Antonio Tempesta, The taking of Jerusalem, Oil on village stone, Galleria Borghese | Photo: © A. Novelli © Galleria Borghese

From blackboard to black marble, from oil on lapis lazuli to village stone, the eye on display encounters a different rendering from that obtained from oil on canvas. And he perceives the beauty immortalized with oil on blackboard by the Tuscan painter Leonardo Grazia, where the confectioned effect of the execution makes the timeless beauty of Lucrezia, Ebe, Cleopatra smooth.
It is worth dwelling in the section Painting with stone which welcomes masters such as Antonio Tempesta and Filippo Napoletano, the most prolific creators of works “made by nature and helped with the brush”. Among their favorite supports, the village stone stands out, obtained from the pebbles of the Arno valley and which, properly cut, can take on a wavy or fractured shape. The beautiful Taking of Jerusalem of Tempesta where the artist adapts to the natural fragmentations of the stone and where minimal brush strokes transform these fractures into the image of a dazzling city.
Whether they were hung on the walls or placed on tables, or even kept in boxes, these stone paintings invited to be picked up to be admired up close. Finally, among the heroines of the myth on stone is Andromeda, the “ivory statue” dear to Ovid, painted on lapis lazuolo by Antonio Tempesta.
“We remember – explains the curator Patrizia Cavazzini – that the hero almost mistook the girl for a statue when he saw her chained to the rock, inseparable from it, just as her image cannot be separated from the stone on which it is painted”.

Detail from Guglielmo della Porta, Crucifixion, ca 1550-1577, Galleria Borghese, Rome | Photo: © A. Novelli © Galleria Borghese

To increase the timeless wonder, which also includes objects currently part of the Borghese collection, such as the Roman semiprecious stone table or the Tabernacle of the Chapel, are the statues with polychrome inserts in the Gallery, which generate a necessary comparison with colored marbles ancients to compose a surprising wunderkammer.

“The path – explains Francesca Cappelletti, director of the Borghese Gallery and curator of the exhibition – takes us to the discovery of a hidden wealth within the collections, it brings us closer to a form of work of art that could be touched, to observe it closely. and with great attention, letting oneself be enchanted by the artist’s skill and the creative energy of nature itself “.

The many lives of the stone go on, defying time, but in different ways. With the onset of the plague, for example, the stones will no longer be painted but shattered and that lapis lazuli so much used to simulate the sea and the sky, will now be used to lower the fever.
To accompany the exhibition, the catalog published by Officina libraria with an introduction by Francesca Cappelletti and texts, among others, by Patrizia Cavazzini, Piers Baker-Bates, Elena Calvillo, Laura Valterio, Judy Mann and Francesco Freddolini.

Read also:
• Timeless wonder. Stone painting in Rome in the seventeenth century