di Eliana Monaca Principality of Monaco is not just luxury and glamour, but it’s also «a tourist destination with a remarkable heritage»[1]. On the Rocher, (Monaco Town, The Rock) the highest point of view in the Principality of Monaco, there are some of the most attractive places, like the nineteenth-century Cathedral built on the foundations of the thirteenth-century church dedicated to Saint Nicolas; the Palais Princier, the Prince’s Palace a residence since the thirteenth century of the reigning family Grimaldi and the Musée Océanographique (the Oceanographic Museum). In the Monte-Carlo district, between the Larvotto beach and the famous Tunnel of the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit, there is the Grimaldi Forum built-in 2000. Caravage and the Seventeenth century at Grimaldi Forum The Grimaldi Forum is a congress center, where, thanks to its large spaces, is possible to program exhibitions and events also simultaneously, as in the case of the summer temporary exhibitions, when the Principality welcomes all its visitors (not Monegasque) for the summer holidays[2]. Last year, for example, was held the beautiful exhibition on Salvador Dalì, Dalì, A History of Painting (06th July – 08th September 2019), curated by the director of the Dalì Museums, Montse Aguer, and supported by the Fundacion Gala-Salvador Dalì, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the artist's death, which has garnered widespread acclaim[3]. Two exhibitions were scheduled this year: the first one to celebrate the twenty years of the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco and the Automobile, from 1893 to the present day (11th July – 06th September 2020), now canceled[4], the second one Caravaggio – the power of the light in the Diaghilev Space (17th July – 06th September 2020) postponed[5]. The exhibition Caravaggio – the power of the light was organized by the Monegasque company Gaudio Group, with a highly respected scientific committee chaired by Professor Mina Gregori (student of Roberto Longhi, President of the Foundazione Roberto Longhi, Director of Paragone magazine, member of the Lincei Accademy and the Lègion d’honeur, emeritus professor of History of Modern Art at the University of Florence). Roberta Lapucci (art historian and Chief of Restoration Department of Studio Arts College International School of Florence); Susan Grundy (art consultant); Ubaldo Sedano (Director of Restoration Department of Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid); Keith Sciberras (Professor of Art History at the University of Malta). An Honor Committee with Alessandro Cecchi (Director of Museo di Casa Buonarroti); Cristina Acidini Luchinat (former Superintendent of the city of Florence, Director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and now President of the Academia delle Arti del Disegno); Antonio Paolucci (Art historian and curator, former Superintendent of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, Director of the Vatican Museums and Minister of Cultural Heritage of Italy); Zerafa Fr Marius (Dominican father art historian, former Director of the Malta Museums) and Vittorio Sgarbi (politician and Art historian)[6]. The focus of the exhibition is the light, extremely important in Caravaggio’s compositions[7]. The Light in the Seventeenth century We know from Caravaggio’s contemporary sources how painters and art writers did not appreciate this absence of "light". Giulio Mancini (1559-1630), the first one who wrote about Caravaggio and his coloring «assai di negro»[8], in his book Considerazioni - composed between 1617 and 1628, but published only between 1956 and 1957 by Adriana Marucchi - remembered how the setting of Caravaggio’s works seemed to be in a room with a single «fenestra con le pariete colorite di negro, che così, havendo i chiari e l’ombre molto chiare e molto oscure, vengono a dar rilievo alla pittura», although the figures were still lacking «di moto e d’affetti, di gratia»[9]. Then there was the memory of the rival Giovanni Baglione (1573-1643) who in his book, Vite of 1642, he wrote that Merisi «con la sua virtù si aveva presso i professori qualche invidia acquistata», and then Federico Zuccari, seeing the Contarelli chapel «mentre io [scil. Baglione itself] era presente, disse: “Che rumore è questo?” E guardando il tutto diligentemente, soggiunse: “Io non ci vedo altro, che il pensiero di Giorgione nella tavola del Santo, quando Cristo il chiamò all’apostolato”; e sogghignando, e maravigliandosi di tanto rumore, voltò le spalle, e andossene con Dio»[10]. The doctor and art expert Francesco Scannelli (1616-1663) in his Microcosmo della pittura of 1657 criticized the darkness in the Contarelli chapel because it didn’t let to well see the paintings: the Calling of Saint Matthew and Saint Matthew and the Angelof 1602[11]. He thought that the Calling of Saint Matthew was «una delle più pastose, rilevate e naturali operazioni, che venga a dimostrare l’artificio della pittura per immitazione di mera verità»[12]. Another important information that Scannelli leaved in his book was about a paint in the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany «che fa vedere quando un ceretano cava ad un contadino un dente, e se questo quadro fosse di buona conservazione, come si ritrova in buona parte oscuro e rovinato, saria una delle più degne operazioni che avesse dipinto», the Tooth Puller of 1608 at the Pitti Palace in Florence[13]. Guercino, another painter friend of Scannelli since 1640 when they met in Bologna, explained the reason why «sufficienti e famosi maestri» like Guercino himself, Guido Reni, Rubens, Albani and Pietro da Cortona, changed their style and «poscia nel tempo del maggior grido inclinato il proprio modo di operare alla maggior chiarezza»[14]. Guercino in fact used to study and imitate the Annibale Carracci’s style and then he started to imitate and study the dark manner of Caravaggio. He saw in fact common affinities between the naturalism of Carracci and Caravaggio[15], and he told to his friend Scannelli that «aveva sentito più volte dolersi coloro che possedevano i dipinti della propria sua prima maniera, per ascondere (come essi dicono) gli occhi, bocca ed altre membra nella soverchia oscurità, e per ciò non avere stimato compite alcune parti», so «per sodisfare a tutto potere alla maggior parte, massime quelli che col danaro richiedevano l’opera, aveva [scil.Guercino] con modo più chiaro manifestato il dipinto»[16]. Last but not least it’s important for us to remind what Giovan Pietro Bellori (1613-1696) wrote in his book Vite of 1672. In fact «vecchi pittori assuefatti alla pratica», they had noticed that young painters, «presi dalla novità», celebrated Caravaggio «come unico imitatore della Natura, e come miracoli mirando l’opere sue lo seguivano a gara, spogliando modelli, ed alzando lumi; e senza più attendere studio, e ad insegnamenti, ciascuno trovava facilmente in piazza, e per via il maestro, o gli esempi nel copiare il naturale»[17]. And even if «vecchi pittori» continued to «sgridare il Caravaggio, e la sua maniera, divulgando ch’egli non sapeva uscir fuori dalle cantine, e che povero d’invenzione, e di disegno, senza decoro e senz’arte, coloriva tutte le figure ad un lume, e sopra un piano senza degradarle», they had not been able to slow down «il volo alla sua fama»[18]. Bellori appreciated the influence of Giorgione (saw at Venice) on the young Caravaggio, and he created his first paints «dolci, schiette, e senza quelle ombre, ch’egli usò poi»[19]. Bellori in fact thought that the darkness in Caravaggio’s paints erased the «storia», and every possible reference to the action[20]. However Caravaggio «facevasi ogni giorno più noto per lo colorito, ch’egli andava introducendo, non come prima dolce, e con poche tine, ma tutto risentito di oscuri gagliardi, servendosi assai del nero per dar rilievo alli corpi». In this way, he moved away from the pleasantness of Giorgione[21]. The Principality shelters from Covid-19 Covid-19 has obviously shocked Monaco: on March 19th, the main news agencies in fact beat the news of the positivity of Prince Albert II of Monaco to the Coronavirus[22]. Because of the lockdown imposed however a few day before the news[23], the Grimaldi Forum had to close to visitors and postpone the exhibition Caravaggio – the power of the light (probably on summer 2021). The reason why the Grimaldi Forum decided to close - even virtually - is that the Principality's tourism focus itself between May and September with a lot of Italian (from Lombardy and Piedmont), Arabs and sometimes Russians, who usually spent their vacation in Monaco. During the summer a lot of cruise ships with a huge number of visitors use to arrive at Port Hercule. Usually private buses drive them to the Rocher, where they can visit the Cathedral, the Prince's Palace and the Oceanographic Museum. Probably because of this difference in audience, the Oceanographic Museum has chosen to continue its activity even in this time of health emergency, using their social page on Facebook “Musée océanographique de Monaco”. On the other hand, the Grimaldi Forum is not a museum, but a congress center and thanks to its large space, since May 19th the Ravel Space is one the two centers set up by Monaco’s Government for its Covid-19 resident’s screening campaign[24]. Bibliography: Argan 1968 = Giulio Carlo Argan, Storia dell’arte italiana, III, Sansoni, Firenze 1968. Baglione 1642 = Giovanni Baglione, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetta dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII del 1572 in fino a’ tempi di Papa Urbano Ottavo nel 1642, Andrea Fei, Roma 1642. Bellori 1672 = Giovan Pietro Bellori, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti moderni, Mascardi, Roma 1672. Borea 1970 = Evelina Borea, Caravaggio e caravaggeschi nelle Gallerie di Firenze, Sansoni, Firenze 1970. Cinotti 1983 = Mia Cinotti, Michelangelo Merisi detto Caravaggio: tutte le opere, Poligrafiche Bolis, Bergamo 1983. Collezionismo mediceo 2002 = Collezionismo mediceo e storia artistica, a cura di P. Barocchi e G. Gaeta Bertelà, I, Da Cosimo I a Cosimo II 1540-1621, 2 voll., Spes, Firenze 2002. Gregori 1991 = Mina Gregori, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Come nascono i capolavori, Electa, Milano 1991. Gregori 2005 = Mina Gregori, Tre “cartelle” per tre mostre caravaggesche, in «Paragone, Arte», 56, n. 669, 64, november 2005, pp. 3-24. Gregori 2010 = Mina Gregori, scheda Cavadenti, in Caravaggio e caravaggeschi a Firenze, by G. Papi, Sillabe, Livorno 2010. Guttuso 1967 = Renato Guttuso, L’opera complete del Caravaggio, Classici dell’arte, Rizzoli, Milano 1967. Longhi 1968 = Roberto Longhi, Caravaggio, Ed. Riuniti, Roma 1968. Marangoni 1922 = Matteo Marangoni, Il Caravaggio, Battistelli, Firenze 1922. Marini 2005 = Maurizio Marini, Caravaggio “Pictor praestantissimus”, Newton & Compton, Roma 2005. Occhipinti 2018 = Carmelo Occhipinti, Introduzione alle Vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti di Giovan Battista Passeri (1772), by M. Carnevali and E. Pica, Fonti e Testi of “Horti Hesperidum”, 18, UniversItalia, Roma 2018, pp. 5-107. Scannelli [1657] 2015 = Francesco Scannelli, Il Microcosmo della pittura 1657, by E. Monaca with an essay by C. Occhipinti, Fonti e Testi of “Horti Hesperidum”, 5, UniversItalia, Roma 2015. Sitography:
[1] https://www.visitmonaco.com/us/place/16/museums. [2] Thanks to the virtual tour on https://www.grimaldiforum.com/en/visite-virtuelle, it is possible to realize how large the spaces of the Grimaldi Forum are, in particular the Ravel Space where the summer exhibition is usually set up. [3] https://www.artlimited.net/agenda/exhibition-dali-a-history-of-painting-monaco-grimaldi/en/7583188 andhttps://www.grimaldiforum.com/en/events-schedule-monaco/dali-une-histoire-de-la-peinture. [4] https://www.grimaldiforum.com/en/events-schedule-monaco/exhibition---monaco-and-the-automobile-from-1893-to-the-present-day. [5] https://www.grimaldiforum.com/en/events-schedule-monaco/exhibition-michelangelo-merisi-the-caravage. [6] https://www.caravaggioexhibition.com/exhibition. [7] https://www.caravaggioexhibition.com/exhibition. [8] Mancini 1956-1957, pp. 139-148 at https://www.google.it/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwii_4PSoJjpAhVT6qYKHaqkDI4QFjABegQIBxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Flettere.aulaweb.unige.it%2Fmod%2Fresource%2Fview.php%3Fid%3D3181&usg=AOvVaw25A4IfgMhXU47Vo0y3QDaR. [9] Mancini 1956-1957, pp. 108-109 at https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Giulio_Mancini. [10] Baglione 1642, p. 137. [11] The Calling of Saint Matthew was «il primo germe – ed è lode altissima – di tanta della pittura spagnola e rembrandtiana» (Marangoni 1922, p. 29). For a study on the painting, see Guttuso 1967, pp. 94-95, n. 42; Cinotti 1983, pp. 528-530, n. 61A and Marini 2005, pp. 441-442, n. 36. More information about the Saint Matthew and the Angel, see Guttuso 1967, p. 95, n. 44, Cinotti 1983, pp. 412-416, n. 4 and Marini 2005, pp. 466-467, n. 53. See Argan 1968, III, pp. 275-277 and Longhi 1968, pp. 23-26 for the Contarelli chapel. [12] Scannelli [1657] 2015, p. 268. [13] Scannelli [1657] 2015, p. 269. Modern critics disagreed on Caravaggio autography’s, because Scannelli was the second one to talk about this painting. The first one was Tommaso Guidoni in a letter sent from Modena to Giovan Carlo de’ Medici on November 5th 1649, demanding an exchange of several paintings, like a Raphael’s «Madonna (…) in tondo», a Leonardo’s «Santa Caterina», the Caravaggio’s «Cavadenti», the Cigoli’s «Ecce Homo» and the Bronzino’s «San Giuliano». From a 1652 report in Giornaletto di galleria, it is possible to see that the painting wasn’t moved from Florence because it was «ruinato». The letter is entirely published in Collezionismo mediceo 2002, I, pp. 135-136, note 497, and mentioned in Gregori 2005, p. 14. On the controversial attribution, see Borea1970, pp. III, 12-13; Gregori 1991, pp. 328, 332; Gregori, 2005, pp. 15-16; Marini 2005, pp. 573-574 and Gregori, 2010, p. 122. [14] Scannelli [1657] 2015, p. 193. [15] Occhipinti 2018, p. 72. [16] Scannelli [1657] 2015, p. 193. [17] Bellori 1672, p. 205. [18] Bellori 1672, p. 205. [19] Bellori 1672, p. 202 and Occhipinti 2018, p. 53. [20] Occhipinti 2018, p. 51, n. 125. [21] Bellori 1672, p. 204. [22] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/19/europe/prince-albert-monaco-coronavirus-intl-scli/index.html. [23] https://www.hellomonaco.com/news/latest-news/closure-of-creches-and-schools-in-monaco-and-increasing-prudent-restrictions-due-to-coronavirus/. [24] https://www.grimaldiforum.com/en/index/from-may-19th-the-grimaldi-forum-monaco-is-one-of-the-centers-set-up-by-monaco and https://forbes.mc/article/free-covid-19-testing-in-monaco-for-residents-and-employees.
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