It's always nice to take a walk at the Museum and Royal Forest of Capodimonte (*), both to breathe pure air in the forest and for a visit to the Royal Palace; here, in addition to the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions are often hosted which are always interesting and pleasant.
And we want to talk to you about two exhibitions that we have visited recently. The first actually houses only one very famous painting and should be seen as soon as possible because it is scheduled to close on February 23, 2025.
It's The French Guest. Gustave Courbet and the painting is Les Demoiselles des bords de la Seine (été), in English Maidens on the banks of the Seine (summer). From the presentation of the exhibition we took this text:
'Les Demoiselles des bords de la Seine (été)' presented at the Paris Salon in 1857 immediately caused a stir due to the sensuality of its message: on a hot summer day two young women, probably two prostitutes, rest lying limply on the grass by the river.
The hot and humid atmosphere envelops the girls, as evidenced by a hint of sweating on their skin.
At first glance the painting would appear to belong to a tradition derived from the female figures of Giorgione and Titian, but reinterpreted by Courbet through the painting of the seventeenth-century Spanish masters, Ribera first and foremost.
Realism here recounts daily life in the open air and summer rest, opening up to large-format paintings and anticipating the great pictorial success of the banks of the Seine, celebrated a generation later by the Impressionists.
The other exhibition we want to tell you about is entitled Sete and hosts some works by the Milanese artist and performer Gaia Fugazza, who lives in London and has worked in international contexts such as Zurich, Basel, Oslo, Venice, Rome, Milan, Lofoten Islands. The exhibition will remain open until March 18, 2025. From the presentation we take this passage:
“Capodimonte opens up to young and performative creativity - declares Eike Schmidt, director of the Museum and Royal Forest - by hosting an artist with an international scope within the framework of the historic synergies with the Caselli Palizzi Arts Centre. And it does so in the name of Porcelain, a theme that we will explore in various forms in 2025 on our path towards the opening of the large section dedicated to this identifying art".
The event concludes a residency project by the artist at the “Giovanni Caselli” Rare Address Institute, located within the Capodimonte park, in the same ancient building that was home to the first Royal Porcelain Factory, founded in 1743 and today part of the Caselli Palizzi Arts Center directed by Valter Luca De Bartolomeis. The residency, which brought the artist to Naples between 2023 and 2024, focused on the third-fire processing of porcelain and its hybridization with other materials.
On display there are two series of porcelain wall works, the first made in the bright colors of the third fire; the others contaminated with glass or pierced by squid bones. The squid bones look like plastic feathers and are perhaps witnesses of a distant time in history in which the creatures of the sky and those of the abyss found each other, united on the path of evolution.
Some images taken by us:
So, have we intrigued you? From a logistical point of view, the Museum and Royal Forest of Capodimonte is always welcoming to disabled people, who can leave their cars inside the park in the designated car park; the avenues of the park are always a pleasure to walk, even if major repaving works are currently underway near the Royal Palace.
And walking along the avenues you can encounter another example of contemporary art inserted into nature. It is Erratic Boulders, a sculpture by Marisa Albanese, remembered in this plaque by the then director Sylvain Bellenger:
(*) symbol indicating the presence of toilets equipped for disabled people
Comments