Roberto Antonelli, Virginia Lapenta, Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi
Following its showing at Villa Farnesina in Rome (16 June 2021 – 13 January 2022), the exhibition The Centenary Triptych: Leonardo 1919, Raphael 1920, Dante 1921 and Italian Genius at the Origins of Made in Italy was hosted by the Museo della Grafica in Pisa, where it was open to the public from 7 April to 2 October 2022. The exhibition formed part of the celebrations of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei dedicated to “The Triptych of Italian Genius. Leonardo 2019 Raphael 2020 Dante 2021”, to which the Lincei devoted more exhibition events than any other Italian cultural or museum institution.
Taken as a whole, the exhibition set out to offer a wide-ranging view of how the centenaries of Leonardo, Raphael and Dante were received in art and advertising in the years following the First World War, with particular attention to the emergence, from the early years of the twentieth century, of a design-oriented outlook that took shape not only in the artistic field but also in proto-design, understood in the broadest sense of the term. From graphics to advertising, from posters to designs for furniture and textiles, the exhibition traced this development through works, books, magazines and iconographic material spanning a period that runs from the early twentieth century to Futurism, through to the Biennali d’Arte Decorativa in Monza, whose first edition celebrated its centenary in 2023, and beyond, including the earliest artistic and industrial creations at the dawn of Made in Italy.
The exhibition was arranged in three main sections, accompanied by two thematic itineraries dedicated to the “Origins of Made in Italy”, in which period magazines, objects and books were displayed alongside works by many leading figures of early twentieth-century Italian art, on loan from private collections. Among them were Anselmo Bucci, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Felice Casorati, Arturo Ciacelli, Paola Consolo, Primo Conti, Giorgio de Chirico, Fortunato Depero, Antonio Donghi, Gerardo Dottori, Leonardo Dudreville, Lucio Fontana, Achille Funi, Giandante X, Giovanni Guerrini, Antonio Marasco, Virgilio Marchi, Alberto Martini, Cesare Monti, Mario Nannini, Plinio Nomellini, Piero Persicalli, Romolo Romani, Ottone Rosai, Luigi Russolo, Enrico Sacchetti, Federico Seneca, Gino Severini, Mario Sironi, Thayaht, Umberto Tirelli, Carlo Vitale and Adolfo Wildt. Particular prominence was also given to the series of postcards produced by Ezio Anichini for the Dante centenary of 1921.
Originally conceived and staged for the rooms of Villa Farnesina in Rome (16 June 2021 – 13 January 2022), the exhibition was subsequently restaged at the Museo della Grafica in Pisa, before embarking on a tour of China, travelling to Beijing at Raffles City Beijing (31 July – 15 September 2023), Chongqing at the Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (25 October – 23 November 2023) and Tianjin at the Tianjin Art Museum (3 December 2023 – 7 January 2024), thanks to the collaboration of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Beijing and the Italian Embassy in Beijing, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Associazione Amici dell’Accademia dei Lincei.
TECHNICAL DATA (Pisa)
Title: The Centenary Triptych: Leonardo 1919, Raphael 1920, Dante 1921 and Italian Genius at the Origins of Made in Italy
Venue: Museo della Grafica, Pisa (Palazzo Lanfranchi)
Open to the public: 7 April – 2 October 2022
Organised by: Museo della Grafica di Pisa (Comune di Pisa, Università di Pisa)
In collaboration with: Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa, Biblioteca della Scuola Normale Superiore, Sistema Museale di Ateneo, Villa Farnesina – Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
With the support of: Ministry of Culture, Associazione Amici dell’Accademia dei Lincei
Exhibition curated by: Roberto Antonelli, Virginia Lapenta, Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi
Texts: Virginia Lapenta, Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi
Lenders: Studio Guicciardo Sassoli Art Exhibitions & Archives, Studiolo Fine Art, Milan, 800/900 Art Studio, Lucca, Private collection, Bologna, Private collection, Milan–Portofino, Private collection, Rome–Vienna, Maria Rosaria Basileo, Rome
Archive footage: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna – Archivio film, Archivio Storico Istituto Luce, Rome
With thanks to: Filippo and Martina Bacci di Capaci, Lorenzo Bellettini, Ginevra Cavina Boari – Studio Canonico Cavina Boari, Bologna–Rome, Stefano and Guido Cribiori, Daniele Crippa, Livio Marianti, Museo del Parco, Portofino, Maria Antonia Tortorici Montaperto.
