40 masterworks from the Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg will be on show in Florence at the Modern Art Gallery in Palazzo Pitti up to April the 30th 2011.
A voyage into the soul of Russian art from the XVI century “Cristo Pantocrator” to the various streams of the XX century art : the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, the Abstractionism of Wassili Kandinsky and the Analytical Art of Pavel Filonov.
The exhibition aims at witnessing the evolution of Russian painting as from the icons of the Byzantine tradition, synthesis of orthodox spirituality and pride of tsars who, in the first half of the 18th century, broke thanks to Peter the Great the cultural isolation of Russian culture, thus opening it to the Modern Age.
Shortly, Russian art turns from the east to the west, recovering itself from a still condition. It discovers new techniques, experimentations without missing the historical identity of its great past. Malevich, the great “suprematist” in his “peasant cycle” explores a new pictorial representational art which remains, however, faithful to the mystically solemn and stern faces of the icons.
Italy, in particular Florence, is a reference point. The Demidoffs, a wealthy and prestigious Russian family, are deeply rooted in the Florentine culture of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In fact the portrait of Anatolj Demidoff , first prince of San Donato, by Karl Brulliov is part of Palazzo Pitti’s permanent collection. Brulliov, one of the most significant painters of the 19th century, was a sympathizer of the Risorgimento. He died in Italy and was buried in the Piramide Cestia cemetery in Rome. The Italian background becomes the subject of Brulliov’s paintings such as “Pomeriggio Italiano”. He is able to translate into images the Mediterranean feeling without forgetting the characters of his Russian world as in the portrait of Elisabeth Pavlova Saltikova, born Strogova on the foreground of her Saint Petersburg winter garden or Alexei Tolstoy.
The great Russian writer is a much loved topic of the 19th century Russian painting. He domineers the exhibition in the huge work of Ilya Repin, one of few painters admitted to Jasania Poliana. The two meter high portrait represents Tolstoy in the open-air, in his peasant jacket, the “circassa”, barefoot. In spite of the rural image the noble attitude of the count comes out.
The exhibition can be ideally divided into two sections.
The first one focuses on the painters who in the first half of the 19th century worked in Italy. Let’s remember:
Alexander Ivanov with his sketch of a young naked boy, caught in an unconventional attitude, just an ordinary lad of the Roman countryside
Kiprenski with the portrait of Davidov, the proud hussar of the Napoleonic army
Scedrin with a wonderful view of the Gulf of Naples , seen from Mergellina. He was adopted by Naples and later by Sorrento for his eternal rest.
The second section includes works which significantly contributed to contemporary art: Serov” , Goncharova, Larionov and Bakst, collaborators of Diaghilev in the Russian Ballets and the great Malevich and Kandinsky.
The event represents an important, steady step for the spreading of an art which has so far unjustly been neglected. A preface to the numerous initiatives that are going to characterize the Florentine partnership between Italy and Russia along the whole 2011. Not to be missed. Take the opportunity of visiting this exhibition and exploring Florence and its superb monuments. For accommodations in the heart of Florence, we recommend our www.tuscanyholidayrent
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