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Italy
through the eyes of the artists
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An
important exhibition in the heart of Genoa takes
us through five centuries of travelling through
Italy.
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 An
important exhibition at Genoa's Palazzo Ducale traces
five centuries of travel through Italy. The show,
aptly named Journey
through Italy includes paintings, manuscripts,
letters, statues as well as the personal effects
of the many writers, poets and artists who forged
a deep bond with our country, telling stories of
the countryside, from the courts, of love and life
itself.
Journey through Italy is much more than an
exhibition, it's a kaleidoscope of history, art
and poetry that dates back to the opulent Renaissance
courts, to great dynasties such as the Este,
Gonzaga and Medici families, who come to life in
the brushstrokes of masters such as Titian,
Tintoretto, Raphael, and Michelangelo,
or through the verses of wordsmiths the like of
Machiavelli, Ariosto and Tasso.
And this is merely the beginning. . .
The Genoa of yesteryear
The dark walls of the Palazzo Ducale are a perfect
backdrop to the intense colours of the paintings.
Red is the predominant colour, the red of the Flemish
School of painting which lived some of its finest
hours here, in Genoa. Genoa -the Haughty as it's
also known - that welcomed Rubens,
who, after his period in Mantua, was engaged in
the service of the Spinola family. Rubens depicted
the Lantern City (another of Genoa's many names)
through his portraits of its eminent citizens (Nicolò
Pallavicino, Giovanni Carlo Doria and Ambrogio Spinola,
to name a few) as well as his studies of its finest
buildings.
We are thrown back into the vibrant life of the
16th and 17th centuries through
the magnificent collection of paintings of the then
city centre (look out for Sebastian
Vranckx's oil painting of 'Piazza Banchi'),
the dry docks, and merchant life as well as the
watercolour engravings of Genoa's Fortress and Jesuit
Church without forgetting Velazquez's magnificent
oils.
A roomful of Italy
They're all here - from Rubens to Van Dyck,
and Montesquieu's recollections of his journeys
to Turin, Milan and Bologna to Guido Reni's
wonderful rendition of Saint
Sebastian.
Be warned. A visit to this exhibition could reduce
you to the state of Stendhal, who was so overwhelmed
by the magnificence of Florence that he was unable
to walk for faintness. There's barely time for the
visitor to acknowledge the Marquis De Sade's
homage to Florence, or Winckelmann's perception
of Rome, or Goethe's Naples, with its soul
"teeming with joy, freedom and life
". Then there's
Vanvitelli's landscapes and Vincenzo Cammarano's
Pulcinella (Punch) lest we forget that Italy
"is a country of players" (Charles de Brosses).
On we go towards Segesta's temple and Syracuse's
magnificent Greek theatre, hung beside Jakob
Philipp Hackert's more restrained visions of
Sicily. It's time to cross through centuries and
borders until we reach the Naples of Stendhal,
and the opening of the opera season in Teatro
San Carlo - and further north to Rome where
Canova's plaster casts reproduce the beauty
of Paolina Borghese. Shelley brings
us back to Liguria ("Shelley's funeral was held
on Viareggio's beach", Louis-Edouard Fournier),
and to Genoa herself with two other illustrious
Englishmen: William Turner and Charles
Dickens. Dickens said of his stay: "During
the summer evenings the Genoese like to cool down
wherever there's a little space. They buzz around
the narrow backstreets, up and down steps, just
as a bee does if left to himself."
But now, unfortunately we must leave the past behind
and throw ourselves into the Genoa
of today, losing ourselves in its winding
alleys and unchartered streets.
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ELENA GUARNERI |
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July
2001
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THE SURVIVOR'S 
