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
No comments:
Post a Comment