Leonor Fini and the Bassi Rathgeb Graphic Collection – Signs and Inventions from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century

The Bassi Rathgeb Villa Museum presents “LEONOR FINI AND THE BASSI RATHGEB GRAPHIC COLLECTION. Signs and Inventions from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century. “, an exhibition that offers the public a journey through 80 works including drawings and prints, made between the 16th and 20th centuries.

The exhibition, curated by Giovanni Bianchi, Raffaele Campion, Barbara Maria Savy and Federica Stevanin brings to the halls of the Villa Bassi Rathgeb Museum an itinerary spanning some five centuries, from the Renaissance to the second half of the twentieth century, which includes 55 works from the graphic collection of the Museum’s collection on the one hand, and a body of work recently donated by Ambassador Ugo Gabriele de Mohr on the other.

The first part of the itinerary, in the evocative rooms of the hypogeum, is divided into 7 thematic sections: among the most valuable drawings is the Study for the Little Sleeping Cupid recently returned to the authorship of Bernardino Campi, the sheet with Five Greyhounds, signed by Giandomenico Tiepolo, two “macabre” Capricci di scheletri production by Paolo Vincenzo Bonomini, and two projects from the Russian period by Giacomo Quarenghi representative of architectural design and interpreter of neoclassicism between the 18th and 19th centuries.

The itinerary continues with a Scene from “Il Bravo” by Francesco Hayez, the greatest exponent of Romanticism, some landscapes by Giovanni Migliara and contemporary artists of the Lombardy milieu, and a section devoted to the rich nucleus of etchings by Dutchman Adriaen van Ostade, the author of lively genre scenes. Also, etchings from drawings and paintings by Titian, Jacopo Bassano, Guercino, Giuseppe Zais, and Pietro Longhi. The tour concludes with a selection of works by Cesare Tallone and Rinaldo Agazzi, underscoring the museum’s role as a custodian and promoter of Lombard artistic culture, in keeping with the history of its collection.

The second part of the itinerary, set up among the frescoed rooms on the main floor, is entirely dedicated to Leonor Fini’s body of graphic works, created during the 20th century: 24 works on paper including photolithographs and engravings. Although close to the Surrealists, Fini’s painting draws inspiration from Italian Mannerism, Flemish masters and German Romanticism, while always remaining autonomous from the dominant currents. The Graphic Compositions, featured in the exhibition, outline the artist’s poetics, which, although in dialogue with the main movements and protagonists of his era, always remained free of influences and categories.

In order to trace the figure of Leonor Fini between visual arts, music and theater in the exhibition, thanks to the collaboration with the Venice Biennale’s Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts, the original scene sketch of Orpheus, performed by the artist for Roberto Lupi’s one-act play presented in 1951 at the International Festival of Contemporary Music, will be on display.