Gribouillage: when doodling becomes art

gribouillage | scarabocchio

GRIBOUILLAGE: WHEN DOODLING BECOMES ART

I had the opportunity to visit an exhibition that, with unusual juxtapositions, sheds light on lesser-known aspects of the practice of drawing.
Gribouillage/Scarabocchio. From Leonardo da Vinci to Cy Twombly is the exhibition curated by Francesca Alberti and Diane Bodart that takes place first in Rome, at the Academy of France – Villa Medici, then in Paris, at the Beaux-Arts.

The exhibition project explores the hidden side of art making and invites visitors to move their gaze to the back of paintings, the walls of workshops, the margins of a book or the walls of cities.
Two complementary exhibitions to address the many facets of doodling in art.

In this post I propose the sections of the Rome exhibition, which has the merit of underlining how experimentation and the search for a primordial sign, which does not respect any academic rule, is a necessity present not only in the contemporary era.
Gribouillage: when doodling becomes art

Gribouillage: when doodling becomes art

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Titian’s women: the female portrait in sixteenth-century Venice

img donne Tiziano

TITIAN’S WOMEN: THE FEMALE PORTRAIT IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY VENICE

Titian’s women appear sensual and elegant.
In his numerous portraits, they seem to belong to the more affluent strata of society and appear strong and confident.
Was this really the case?

In 16th-century Venice, the image of women took on a role that had never been seen before in the history of painting.
In this post I propose an analysis of the role of women in 16th-century Venice by looking at the most beautiful paintings.

Titian’s women

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Nature in art: from the Romantics to Segantini

Caspar David Friedrich | Donna sulla spiaggia di Rügen

Caspar David Friedrich, Donna sulla spiaggia di Rügen, 1818, circa olio su tela, cm 21.5 x 30 Kunst Museum Winterthur, Fondazione Oskar Reinhart © SIK-ISEA, Zurigo (Philipp Hitz)

NATURE IN ART: FROM THE ROMANTICS TO SEGANTINI

The representation of nature in art has always offered artists the opportunity to describe the world and our relationship with the planet we live on.

The history of art is full of works depicting beautiful landscapes, but it is also full of stories in which Nature and its elements are personified by deities, taken from classical culture, that allow us to understand our connection with the world.
I recently visited an exhibition (details at the bottom of this post) that took me on a journey of discovery of nature in art and offered me the chance to understand how nature became so important in the 19th century.

Nature in art

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The story of Monte Verità and the return to nature

Monte Verità

Ritratto di gruppo con danzatrici: Fondazione Monte Verità, Fondo Harald Szeemann, Fondo Suzanne Perrotet

THE STORY OF MONTE VERITÀ AND THE RETURN TO NATURE

The story of Monte Verità began in the early 20th century. In just a few decades, it became a destination for artists and intellectuals who were seeking a spiritual and creative refuge and who found, among the woods and hills overlooking Lake Maggiore, a place to imagine and create a new world based on today’s themes such as the ecology of living and the ecology of the soul.

The history of Monte Verità is therefore a pioneering story in which some of the most important personalities of the 20th century found a direct and genuine contact with nature, reflecting on the need for man to build a lifestyle in harmony with the planet.

History of Monte Verità

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Parma and the Farnese family: a history of power and beauty

Raffaello Sanzio | Ritratto del Cardinale Alessandro Farnese

Raffaello Sanzio, Ritratto del Cardinale Alessandro futuro Papa Paolo III, 1509-1511
olio su tavola, cm 139 x 91
Napoli, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte
© Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte

PARMA AND THE FARNESES: A HISTORY OF POWER AND BEAUTY

The story of Parma and the Farnese is one of power and beauty.
From the marriages arranged to extend the political influence of one of the most influential families of the Italian Renaissance, to the works of art they collected and commissioned from the leading artists of the time, the Farnese were at the centre of the most important historical events from the 16th to the 18th century and transformed the territory of Parma into a political and cultural reference point.

In this post I will tell you their story.

Parma and the Farnese family
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