Meetings, art and courses: the Diocesan Museum is up and running, and is “open” online

After the success of the exhibition dedicated to the American photographer Inge Morath, which was visited by over 17,000 people, the “Carlo Maria Martini” Diocesan Museum in Milan, in compliance with the ministerial instructions, will remain closed to the public until 3 December.

However, the museum’s work is not stopping, as it continues to organise exhibitions of great, historical-artistic interest and importance, on its digital channels, and presents plenty of food for thought, now that Christmas is approaching.

On Tuesday 17 November, at 6.00 p.m., on the platform Zoom, Nadia Righi, the director of the Diocesan Museum, is beginning the series of meetings that look back on previous editions of the initiative “Un Capolavoro per Milano” (A Masterpiece for Milan), with artistic and spiritual examinations.

The first meeting will be about the “Adorazione dei Magi” (the Adoration of the Magi), by Artemisia Gentileschi, in the Pozzuoli Cathedral, in Naples, which, last year, at this time, was exhibited in the halls of the Milanese museum.

Participation is free, but reservations must be made by 2 p.m. on Monday, 14 November, by sending an email to diocesanoonlin@gmail.com.

On Wednesday, 18 November, at 5.30 p.m., the course on the history of art “La lunga scia della bellezza” (The Long Trail of Beauty), given by Stefano Zuffi, continues, and can be followed on Zoom.

The focus of the lecture will be the Spanish painter and engraver Francisco Goya (1746-1828), whose art, which was initially influenced by the eighteenth-century Neapolitan tradition, by Tiepolo, by Mengs and by his admiration for Velázquez, led him to a freedom of execution unfettered by every academic ideal of beauty. An extraordinary portrait painter, Goya was able to provide a dramatic testimony of the social and political events of his time in his works.

The course concludes on Wednesday 25 November, at 5.30 p.m., with the online lecture dedicated to the sculptor Antonio Canova.

To participate, enrolments must be made by Monday 14 November, by sending an email to diocesianoonline@gmail.com; the cost of the course is €10.

As we approach Christmas, Ambarabart is organising “Venite, adoriamo” (“Come, let’s worship”), a series of meetings, on Zoom, that examine the subject of the Adoration, through the works of the most important artists in history, such as Giotto, Duccio, Giorgione, Tiziano, Caravaggio, and others.

The initiative is part of the IncontrArti project at the “Carlo Maria Martini” Diocesan Museum, a meeting between art and the community for social inclusion, which is organised in partnership with the Luigi Clerici Foundation and funded by the Comunità Milano Foundation.

It starts on Monday 23rd November (enrolment starts on 19 November), at 6.00 p.m., with “Venite, adoriamo …” with Giotto and Duccio, presented by Chiara Brighi, and continues on Wednesday 2 December (enrolment starts on 26 November), at 6.00 p.m., with “Venite, adoriamo …” with Giorgione and Tiziano, presented by Maria Elisa Le Donne, who will talk about how the most famous artists of the 16th century in Veneto gave shape to that style of painting that is a sublime representation of man and of nature, through colour.

On Wednesday, 9 December (enrolment starts on 3 December), at 6.00 p.m., it is the turn of Caravaggio and Correggio. Arianna Piazza will analyse how two of the artists considered “anti-classical” par excellence, who are impossible to connect to any artistic current, dealt with the theme of the Adoration and made it possible to create a dialogue between light and colour that involves our emotions directly.

The series concludes on Wednesday 16 December (enrolment starts on December 10), at 6.00 p.m., with Arianna Piazza comparing the art of Rubens, who was able to combine Nordic painting with the eloquence of the Italian style, in the power of the Baroque gesture, and that of Rembrandt, who let this energy sink into the darkness of the northern skies, making the Adoration a profoundly intimate moment.

All of the meetings are free of charge, but it is necessary to enrol for the dates indicated, one week before the lesson, not before, by sending an email to parrocchieoratori@museodiocesano.it.

 

Translated by Micol Viviani and Alessia Tropolini

Reviewed by Prof. Rolf Cook