The Brera gallery

 We savoured our day at the Brera: it was our last day in Italy.  We had visited the gallery 20 years ago, and we approached it with a mixture of excitement and apprehension - would it be as wonderful as we remembered?

It was. In fact it was better - there was the addition of two rooms dedicated to explaining the process of restoration, and during working hours apparently the public can watch the restorers at work  (we were there on a Sunday).

There were also several panels of 'modern' works (1920s - 1960s) including some  Morandis,  Modiglianis a Picasso, and other 20th century works from collections donated by the Jesi and Vitali families that had been donated to the Brera, and were waiting for a new gallery to be opened so they could be exhibited there.

I took only a couple of photos because it was hard to choose what to select - it was all so impressive, and we both tended to sit and look rather than photograph.

It is interesting to see how administrators of institutions  like the Brera are recognising how expectations of the public have changed. 

When Bonaparte collected all these masterpieces from around Italy, and the gallery was opened in 1809, the purpose of the gallery was to educate students, and up until recently the only way to see the collection was to visit the building.

Of course the first thing you see as you walk through the entrance is Napoleon depicted as a god, naked on a pedestal.

Now, you can see the collection that is on display here, and even more amazing, you can see the work that is NOT on display by going to the menu item here

In the collection of work not on display is a DaVinci drawing and some interesting cycladic art. How amazing is the technology that we have access to?

It does call into question the whole concept of the reason for visiting such places. Yes it is a wonderful experience being able to see these works - the physical object has a history and a particular quality. I loved in particular the frescoes, but they are in a gallery, out of their original context. So maybe if they had been left in situ they would have been destroyed, deteriorated, be too hard to see - I guess you could say this for all the art, including the portraits and the Cannelettos.

The whole idea of galleries is complex and their purposes are definitely changing though- subject for another time and place, not this blog.

Anyway here are a couple of the photos that I took

Giovannni Baronzio 1343-1362 Stories from the life of St Columba.

 It is as fresh as if it had been painted last week, I love the colours and the clean lines.

A bad photo of Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus. 1606

How on earth do they 'lift' an entire set of frescoes?

I have read about the technique, but it always astounds me that it can be done.

Pirelli Hanga Bicocca

 A great highlight of the trip to Milan was our visit to the Pirelli Hanga Bicocca exhibition space. See here

It is an in an old industrial complex in an industrial neighbourhood. The huge hangar that was used to test massive turbines has been transformed into three spacious galleries.

The permanent installation The seven heavenly palaces by Anselm Kiefer was the reason for s going. He is probably one of very favourite artists, and we were very keen to see this work.  It is based on Jewish philosophy about the stages that must be gone through to reach the a transformative state. The work is very evocative; the scale and materials together create a haunting and unsettling response.

It is impossible to summarise accurately the philosophy behind this work. 

If anyone is interested, I suggest downloading the Google Arts and Culture app, and finding the Pirelli Hangar Bococca site - there is a great summary there,

In fact this app is fantastic - we ran out of time nd energy to visit every gallery in Milan (the hot days were draining!) but we were able to 'visit' the Sforza Castle collection, The Museum of Modern art  and many others from the comfort of our apartment. It is a great resource for armchair gallery visiting.

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There were also 5 of Kiefer's large works on canvas on display

The photo below gives some idea of the size of the work... those tiny shapes are people

There were two other exhibitions in two other vast galleries.

Photo below indicates the size of one of the second exhibition spaces.

This is the work of Gian Maria Tosatti entitled Here/Now

Day trip to Como, Bellagio and Menaggio

We took an organised day tour to Como, Bellagio and Menaggio. It was an efficient way to get around, and the guide was excellent. 

Pretty scenery. Many mansions.  Lovely gardens. Much conspicuous wealth.

This gelato shop wins the prize for the best name

Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio

 Close by was the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio founded in 334AD which was an important stop for pilgrims on their journey to Rome or to the Holy Land, because it was said to contain the tomb of the Three Magi or Three Kings. The tomb, not the actual relics - they were stolen away. 

Below, the tomb of the Three Magi, bought at great cost in the Holy Land by Saint Helena when the relics were inside.

There were some lovely frescoes in this church

Milan - the last destination

 Sunday we arrived on the train from Genoa, and by the time we checked in to the apartment and found the nearest supermarket to get some supplies there was not much time to do anything much. The rain was another reason for not going exploring.

Monday we headed out on the Hop on Hop Off  Bus to get acquainted with the city. It was indeed very efficient - we caught it near our apartment, and were able to hop off at the Duomo immediately. It eliminated messing about trying to navigate our way around in the rain.

The Duomo really is impressive. We did not go inside as we had done that previously, and the booking system was pretty onerous

In March climate activists had thrown yellow paint over the statue of Victor Emanuele II .

I guess it takes a while for the powers that be to work out how to get the paint off .

We hopped on again and went down to the Navigli area. The Navigli were  a system of canals that date back to the Middle Ages.  A large part of the canal system was filled in during the 1930s, effectively ending their use as a means of transporting merchandise. Today there are still some, but they have a limited use. Apparently there is a vibrant night life there. We saw them in the daytime.

Exploring Genoa - views from above

 We managed to see Genoa from above 3 times.

The first time we found the lift new Via Garibaldi that took us to a belvedere from which we had a great view over the port. It was cool and green and a world away from the slightly claustrophobic area where we were living. Another example of the many contrasts to be found in this beautiful city.

The second view was from the top of the Maritime museum

The third view was from the grounds of a grand house called Castello D'Albertis - the mansion was built in  the 1800s on to of old bastions on the top of a hill. What was remarkable was the lift that got us there - at first it ran along a rail on the ground as if it were a train or tram carriage, Then it stopped and after some peculiar cranking and whirring sounds, the same carriage became an elevator.

It is a unique piece of engineering. It is called the Albertis Castle – Montegalletto lift

The Castello d'Albertis was a strange place - a kind of folly built by sea captain  Enrico Alberto d'Albertis, completed in 1893 and gifted to the City of Genoa when he died.

Politics and street art in Genoa

 There was not much on the walls in Lucca or in Florence, however Genoa has a vibrant street life, and around the university there were some interesting expressions of opinion.

The university of Genoa is based  around the station and it is housed in grand buildings on which there was some salient graffiti. 

Peace among the oppressed, class war

The seagulls laugh at you

We are flowers that break the asphalt

No to racism, and fuck Selvini

No to tourism and cruise ships

No to the wars of the capitalists

Maritime Museum Genoa

We had a wonderful day at the Maritime Museum which had marvellous displays related to ships, navigation, exploration, maps. emigration and more!

All those history lessons about the Age of Exploration came to ind.

Putting aside the horrors of colonial rule and the sacking of riches from the New World, the technical advancementeswere very interesting to see.

|It was 5 floors of fantastic exhibitions, describing the history of navigation in general as well as the role of Genoa. On the top floor there was a very impressive display based around emigration(Italians leaving) and immigration (people arriving more recently from many countries). It was impressive because it presented the stories of immigrants to Italy in a very sympathetic way. Genoa is home to many migrants, and this display was focused on building tolerance and understanding.

There was also a large section dedicated to the experience of Italians who emigrated to the Americas. The boats that transported them there left from the quay on which the museum was built.

Visitors could look up all sorts of information about families who had emigrated.

On the top floor there was an exhibition devoted to the sinking of the luxury liner the  Andrea Doria in 1956. It was excellently curated.

Some similarities with the Titanic - it was a luxury liner that as built in 1953,  very innovative and stylish for the time. It marked the rebirth of Italian elegance and lavishness. Unfortunately it sank after a collision with another ship. The rescue mission was heroic, but many lives were lost. A video on YourTube here tells the story.

 

Exploring Genoa - the Rolli palaces

Wednesday we explored the famous Via Garibaldi, now a pedestrian street where there are a gazillion palaces jammed all in a row: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco etc etc all built by rich people to boast about their wealth and to entertain foreign dignitaries with the intention to have stable international relations. Gave the exploration of these places full of ostentatious furniture a miss. We were satisfied with looking at them on line. They are impossible to photograph because they are tall, and on top of each other.

Here is a link to get an idea of their size and nature, and below, some of my attempts to photograph them.

 

Here are some photos of just the entrance hall to a palace that is now a bank - 

And there were little delights to be glimpsed through every open  door.

And traces of the former splendour were everywhere