RE-NAISSANCE/RI-NASCIMENTO

From 24 June 2021 | to 25 July 2021

A dialogue between Renaissance painting, contemporary art and sacred vestments. 

A cura di Oreste Ruggiero e Armando Fusco / Una mostra prodotta da Armando Fusco Productions.

“RE-NAISSANCE”, RE-NASCEMENT, is the title of the next exhibition at the Leo-Lev Exhibition Centre in Vinci (FI), an exhibition project promoted by the Cultural Department of the City of Forte dei Marmi (LU) and the Villa Bertelli Foundation, curated by Arch. Oreste Ruggiero and Armando Fusco and produced by Armando Fusco for BE ONE ENJOY s.r.l, in collaboration with the DurerArts Gallery of Florence (FI), l’ass.ne A.L.E.R.AMO – Museo Civico di Moncalvo (AT), and Pontificie Fonderie Marinelli of Agnone (IS) and the Atelier LAVS of Filippo Sorcinelli.

The exhibition is a unique journey through paintings from the 16th century, contemporary art and sacred vestments.

What could be more evocative than the word Renaissance, that cultural and artistic civilisation whose main centre was Tuscany, with its capital Florence? What could be more powerful, in such a dramatic moment – in which the global virus has enclosed us within four walls – to think of a new Humanism, with its values, its anthropocentric visions, which had made the culture of the medieval period evolve and explode?

Perhaps even today our convictions are wavering, our weary limbs seem to give way under the weight of a simple acronym, Covid 19. And yet, art and creativity come to our aid: once again they light up a glimmer of hope, as artists such as Giotto, Masaccio and others did after the Black Death in the 14th century, configuring a new horizon where we can glimpse that international Gothic style which counteracts the fear of death with a love of life. 

So today, this exhibition, which unfolds through a pathway of paintings from the 16th century, contemporary art and sacred vestments, helps us to hope for a rebirth, which is not only symbolic, but objective. Here and now.

As objective as Beauty, that which opens the heart, which “is but the unveiling of a fallen darkness and the light that has come out of it.” As Alda Merini wrote.

The exhibition moved from Fortino Leopoldo I, located in the splendid pearl of Versilia, thanks to a synergic collaboration between the Cultural Department of the City of Forte dei Marmi, the Villa Bertelli Foundation and Arch. Oreste Ruggiero, to the Leo – Lev Centre in Vinci (FI).

After the continuous lockdowns that have denied us the opportunity to fully enjoy the two great moments in the history of Christianity: Easter and Christmas, this exhibition is dedicated to them, or rather to Easter, which requires Christmas to be complete, symbolically bringing together the key elements of birth and rebirth, in a mnemonic journey that helps the visitor remember the meaning of his actions. A sense that is well underlined allegorically by the works in dialogue with each other.

The exhibition is marked by a real novelty: the sacred vestments made by the Atelier LAVS (from the Latin “LAUS, Praise”) which deals with the study, design and production of sacred vestments, furnishings and accessories for the sacred liturgy. The production is mainly inspired by the forms and the ancient tradition of the Church, revisited in the light of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the Liturgical Reform that resulted from it. Founded by Maestro Filippo Sorcinelli, “the Tailor of the Popes”, it collaborates with ecclesiastical bodies and institutions all over Europe, with the offices of Sacred Art and Cultural Heritage and Liturgical Offices all over the world which, with their appointed priests, develop new ideas and new works of art.

The excellence of this atelier, now in its twentieth year of activity, constitutes a ‘unicum’ and for the methods of study, research, exclusivity, technique and accuracy in the realisation of each individual product, it certainly establishes itself among the leading companies in the sector at an international level. The atelier is famous for having repeatedly made sacred robes for H.H. Pope Benedict XVI and for H.H. Pope Francis since the Mass of the Beginning of the Ministry. LAVS collaborates with the main dioceses of the world among which are those of Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Vienna, Miami, New York, Westminster, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Syrian Antiochian Patriarchate, the Principality of Monte Carlo. LAVS had the privilege, among others, of reconstructing the sacred vestments of Pope Celestine V during the last canonical recognition.

Beating out the rhythm of this precious exhibition are the bells of the historic Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli, one of which was made for the 2019 celebrations with a representation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. These bells mark the passing of time and have always surrounded the life of communities, helping them in their identity and providing them with a true language of communication at a distance. Bells as instruments capable of being interpreted by everyone, speaking a universal language, to narrate joys and sorrows, marking out their existence and calling them together to remind them that: “No man is an island, complete in himself; every man is a part of the whole. The death of any man diminishes me, because I am part of humanity. And so never ask for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for you. In this devastating moment of pandemic, the famous writing by Jhonne Donne offers food for thought on the meaning of life, on death, which is part of it and which only love can exorcise, on the responsibility that each of us has in building our future and that of humanity.

But even Leonardo, in the Treatise on Painting, speaks of the “… sound of the bells, in which you can hear them say what you like”: the hope is that a unifying message will finally be understood.

The exhibition focuses on the paschale sacramentum, the celebration on which the entire liturgical year hinges. The Logos, who in himself could not die, takes on a body that could die, in order to sacrifice it as his own body for all. The true birth of Christ takes place at the moment of his exit from the tomb. The dies natalis is the dies paschae: the Lord’s ‘natal day’ is Easter Day. An angel announces the birth, an angel announces the resurrection.

If we do not remember, we cannot understand, wrote Edward Morgan Forster.
And in fact this exhibition reminds us how Christmas reaches its climax on the cross and bears its fruits from the morning of the Resurrection, which, as the culmination of the historical incarnation, confirms and implements the mystery of the birth of the divine Word. The Church in the liturgy – John Paul II specifies – celebrates “Christmas by looking at Easter, just as by celebrating Easter she is mindful of Christmas”. Indeed, according to the Byzantine rite, “Christmas is Easter”. The works on display in the exhibition aim to express this thought: that art – as Cyril Connolly says – is memory: and memory is reactivated desire.

In the Exhibition Centre you are “guided” by an Angel, or rather by the angels present.

The polychrome terracotta replica, made by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, of the sculpture of the Announcing Angel of San Gennaro, attributed by Carlo Pedretti to Leonardo da Vinci, is in dialogue, as in the Forte dei Marmi exhibition, with the works Angeli & Nodi by Oreste Ruggiero.

The precious 16th-century works by Jacopo Bassano, Vittore Carpaccio, Denijs Calvaert, Dosso Dossi, Giovanni de Vecchi, Carlo Portelli, Domenico Puligo, dialogue with contemporary artists: Maria Franca Bartesaghi, Gianni Colonna, Marcello Di Pierro, Antonio Vito Faraone, Ettore Marinelli, Paola Patriarca, Domenico Sorrentino.

RE-NAISSANCE / RENAISSANCE. A DIALOGUE BETWEEN RENAISSANCE PAINTING, CONTEMPORARY ART AND SACRED ICONS

Edited by Oreste Ruggiero and Armando Fusco
24 June 2021 to 25 July 2021 | CENTRO ESPOSITIVO LEO-LEV | Piazza Carlo Pedretti, Vinci (FI)

Open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. / Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday Closed

Info: Tel. 0571/1735135 | Mail. info@leolev.it

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