Origins
Italian art has its roots in ancient Greece, in the time of the Etruscans. Thereafter, the art of ancient Rome was dedicated to serving the politics and religion of the Empire.Enthusiasts will explore the first floor of the Museo civico archeologico
, which traces the history of Bologna from its earliest remains.The wall frescoes, as well as the mosaics, illustrating mythological scenes or daily life, are directly inherited from Byzantine art. Ravenna has preserved a Byzantine palace from the5th and 6th centuries, on which the Church of Sant'Eufemia was built.More than 400 square metres of polychrome mosaics decorate the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra with geometric and floral compositions, but above all unique paintings such as The Dance of the Geniuses of the Seasons and The Good Shepherd, depicted in an unusual posture.To go further, the Tamo Museum
, in the heart of the Church of San Nicolò in Ravenna, offers a fascinating itinerary on the art of mosaics from antiquity to the present day. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine model disappeared in favour of a resolutely Christian art. Rome, after having violently condemned nascent Christianity, made it its official religion at the end of the 4th century. The churches that were built at that time were adorned with paintings and pious sculptures. Medieval art, placed at the service of beliefs, relies on pictorial symbolism to sing the Christian values.The pre-Renaissance
The thirteenth century marked the beginning of a vast conquest of reality that would overturn Western painting. Artists strove to restore the appearance of the real world and, to achieve this, technical innovations were necessarily deployed. Cimabue and his pupil Giotto were the first to question the Byzantine model. Inserting life and emotions as well as landscape elements into his painting, this pre-Renaissance artist launched the "new naturalism". Divine figures are getting closer to the human. At the School of Siena, Byzantine traditions are swept away by a Gothic art animated by Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, remarkable for their work on precision and detail.
The first Renaissance
Then comes the 15th century, and its great princely families of the Italian cities. Patronage was in full swing: the Medici in Florence, the Sforzas in Milan... It is moreover with the Florentine School that the first painters of the Renaissance will express themselves. The first Italian Renaissance, or Quattrocento, is represented by Masaccio. Inventor of the single vanishing point, he focuses his work on perspective, volumes and proportions. But there is also Brunelleschi, an outstanding architect who designed the first dome, and a genius painter seeking the perfect proportions that Donatello finds in his statues. In this decisive period of opening up to the world and knowledge, religious art was in a state of upheaval. Reflecting social secularisation, the plastic arts extend to secular subjects.
The High Renaissance
Until now, the revolution in the arts in Italy had been driven mainly by the bourgeoisie, and Florence was its undisputed capital. However, from 1500 onwards, the movement spread to Rome and Venice. Rome wished to regain its place as the centre of Western culture through the Papacy, which commissioned the greatest artists to build the establishments of Christendom.
Painting, sculpture, architecture, mathematics: the geniuses of the Renaissance that are no longer presented (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo...) combine knowledge and know-how, whether in the sciences, techniques or artistic talent. The golden age of the Renaissance is embodied in the work of Raphael, whose achievement brings together all the ideals of harmony of the time.
Mannerism
After the height of the Renaissance, Italy experienced a brutal crisis that was reflected in the arts. As the Spaniards took over the country, the Reformation, which progressed prodigiously, threatened the integrity of the Roman Church. Mannerism appears in this climate of tension. The heirs of the great masters develop a more abstract painting. Their works take on unreal tonalities and proportions become distorted. In the shadow of their elders, Mannerist painters such as Julius Roman of Mantua and Parmesan in Parma sought to express their originality through disturbing creations. An instrument of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, Mannerism displays more severity and less hedonism than the Renaissance.
The baroque
Once the political crisis had been overcome and the Protestant threat settled by the Council of Trent in the second half of the 16th century, a very particular style began to take hold in Rome, the capital of Christendom: Baroque art. The three great figures of this movement inspired by the strange and disrespectful arts are the architect Borromini, the sculptor Le Bernin and the painter Le Caravaggio. Often depicting dramatic and terror-inspiring scenes, Baroque paintings play on striking contrasts of light and shadow. The aim of Baroque art is also to reinspire faith in Catholics, if necessary through fear, and to reaffirm the power of the Church. Baroque reigned in northern Italy, in Venice, Turin and Genoa until the 18th century.
The prodigious collection of religious art at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna traces art from the 13th century to the Baroque, with a focus on Bolognese painters such as Giorgio Vasari, Guido Reni, Raphael and Le Tintoretto.Neoclassicism
Under the influence of the Enlightenment and the rediscovery of Antiquity, a quest for absolute beauty, balance and clarity was initiated through neoclassicism. The painter Andrea Appiani (Milan, 1754-1717) and the sculptor Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757-Venice 1822) were the official artists of the Emperor and King of Italy. The painting of Appiani, Napoleon, King of Italy
, a portrait of the emperor in front of an antique décor, is a testimony to this. Neoclassicism advocates a return to the values of the great Rome, in historical scenes taken from Antiquity. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Italian art ran out of steam and lost its luminous influence of yesteryear. Since 1913, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi has been exhibiting the art of the last two centuries in Piacenza. You can admire works by Giorgio De Chirico, Gustav Klimt and Francesco Filippini, master of Italian Impressionism.XXth century
In the twentieth century, Italian art regained international stature. In 1909, the Futurist movement was formed in Milan, following the publication of the Futurist Manifesto. Thought up by the poet Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944), it first appeared in a French daily newspaper, Le Figaro
. Futurism has its roots in French Neo-Impressionism and Cubism. This movement, which was not limited to the graphic arts alone, wished to wipe out past traditions, advocating a new aesthetic based on progress, machines and speed. It is above all an urban art. Evoked by the modernization of cities or the invention of new means of transport (airplane, car...), futurism represents imaginary cities or the stylized movement of machines in bright colours. Among its ranks are Sant'Elia, Balla, Cara or Russolo.Futurist art can be admired in the Verzocchi Gallery, a collection based on the theme of work in painting. In order to bring together industry and contemporary art, the industrialist Verzocchi commissioned 70 Italian painters to create a thematic work measuring 90 x 70 cm, accompanied by a self-portrait. Among the artists who lent themselves to the game: Carlo Carrà, Renato Guttuso, Mario Sironi and Giorgio De Chirico. The latter revised his orientations in 1915 when, in reaction to Futurism, he founded metaphysical painting, the avant-garde of Surrealism. In spite of the use of classical techniques, the dreamlike quality of his paintings, haloed with mystery, inspired André Breton.
De Chirico, however, returned to academic painting in the 1930s. Until the Fascist period, the alliance of classical canons and the codes of metaphysical painting constitute the Novecento current. The Second World War marked a brutal rupture in art. From now on, the supports diversify. Contemporary art is meant to be experimental, conceptualization becoming central to the creative process. Attached to figuration, and more precisely to the face, Modigliani dominates twentieth-century art.Nowadays
Following in the footsteps of the Verzocchi collection, the Bologna Biennale Foto/Industria offers a unique look at the link between art and industry. This original event takes place in 14 historical sites, churches, baroque palaces and museums, and is a journey through the city marked by representations of the world of work in the broadest sense. Famous names from the world of photography present their vision of the business world, such as Lee Friedlander, Josef Koudelka and Alexander Rodchenko.
Photographic art also has its place at the Spazio Labo', a centre with an exhibition gallery, a place for research and debate and workshops, which promotes Italian photography internationally. Far from covering up its heritage, the Red City lends its streets to street art, in every neighbourhood. The famous street artist Blu expressed himself on the walls of his hometown for some twenty years before erasing all his works to protest against the hoarding of works. More secret, the town of Dozza is a real open-air museum. Doors and façades of public and private buildings joyfully welcome the brushstrokes of urban artists.
