The title says it, Dream of Italy. A dream that has very distant roots in those Grand Tour which between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were fascinating educational and training trips to Italy for young Europeans of the good bourgeoisie. The exhibition open until March 27 in Milan at the Gallerie d'Italia di Intesa Sanpaolo. Grand Tour: dream of Italy from Venice to Pompeii fixed Venice e Pompei as the two ideal points of our peninsula from north to south. With in the middle of this path many obligatory stops that characterized the travels of the time. And that could not fail to touch, for example, cities like Florence, Rome, Naples. But also the many historic villages and fascinating landscapes that enchanted time travelers, from the Alps to Vesuvius, to Etna.

Italy, a great laboratory of culture that has spanned the centuries

When young Europeans ventured into the Grand Tours they concretely took possession of that image of Italy loved and dreamed of by a Europe that recognized itself in common roots. Roots of which Italy had been the great laboratory of culture in the broadest sense for centuries. The myth of the Bel Paese was born in those years. Thanks to the long line of artists who depicted Italy in all its beauty.

grand tour the Italian beauty

All this tells the exhibition dedicated to the Grand Tours, through 130 works from the Intesa Sanpaolo collections but also from numerous private collections, Italian and international cultural institutions. Among the many, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan in New York. In Italy, the Uffizi in Florence, the Capitoline Museums in Rome, the Vatican Museums. Among the loans, there are also two works from the Royal Collection of Queen Elizabeth. And others from large residences such as the Palace of Versailles, that of Caserta and the Palace of Pavlovsk in St. Petersburg.

Dream of Italy - the capitals of the Grand Tour

Precious paintings, sculptures, art objects, works by the main artists of the time tell of this image of Italy so loved and dreamed of by Europe. Artists who were Italian like Piranesi, Volpato, Canaletto, Panini, Batoni, Lusieri. And obviously many foreigners, Hubert Robert, Jones, Wright of Derby, Hackert, Volaire, Ducros, Granet, Valenciennes, Catel, Ingres. Also two painters, Vigée Lebrun and Angelica Kauffmann.

The myth of the Bel Paese that attracted the most aristocratic and cultured European society

There are indeed many artists, as well as many writers, young lords, sovereigns, churchmen, politicians, members of the European cultured aristocratic society who had chosen Italy as a privileged artistic destination. With the knowledge that only in our country would they have found the best synthesis of classical culture, the most complete testimonies of architecture, painting, both ancient and modern sculpture.

Dream of Italy - grand tour milan

To this already extraordinary artistic and cultural wealth were added, in the eighteenth century, the great archaeological discoveries in Herculaneum and Pompeii. The trip to Italy at the time was part of an educational and training path, as well as representing a welfare state. An almost obligatory passage in a country that is unique in the world for the variety of its landscape (still intact at the time), the wealth of its cities, monuments and works of art. A real widespread museum.

Goethe and his Journey to Italy

Goethe, who was one of the best known of these travelers (his volume Journey to Italy is famous) went as far as the most distant and then less known Sicily. Here he was able to admire his landscapes and the grandeur of the temples of Segesta, Selinunte and Agrigento, or of the Greek theater of Syracuse. In those years Italy became the largest market not only for ancient art but also for a contemporary production inspired by the memory of the ancient. Painting, engraving, sculpture, manufactures such as that of bronze, goldsmiths, and mosaics had great impetus. Precious evidence of a peninsula that from north to south knew how to enchant, from any side you wanted to look at.

Information: www.gallerieditalia.com

In Milan the exhibition "Grand Tour of Italy's dream from Venice to Pompeii" last edit: 2022-02-21T09:00:00+01:00 da Cristina Campolonghi

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