Once again an accessible exhibition, once again an opportunity to visit the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte. This time the Sala Raffaello Causa of the Museum (perfectly served by two lifts, one at the beginning and one at the end of the itinerary) hosts, until 25 June 2023, the exhibition Spaniards in Naples. The Southern Renaissance, very important from a historical and artistic point of view, as excellently illustrated in this text taken from the official site of the Museum (https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it/mostra/gli-spagnoli-a-napoli-il-rinascimento-meridionale/): The exhibition is dedicated to one of the most fruitful and least known moments of Neapolitan artistic civilization: the thirty years (about 1503-1532). It is the period which, from a political point of view, saw the extinction of the Aragonese dynasty, with the passage of the Kingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Crown of Spain; from a cultural point of view, the achievement of the apex of his great humanistic season, with the handover from Giovan Gioviano Pontano to Iacopo Sannazaro. The artistic novelties elaborated in those years by Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael were promptly incorporated and reinterpreted in an original way in a Naples that was still very much alive, for which the loss of the function of autonomous capital did not constitute an obstacle to cultural development, but, on the contrary, contributed to the definition of a new role of transmission belt of Renaissance culture between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
The exhibition offers a wide range of works performed by some of the main Spanish artists active in Naples in those years, such as Pedro Fernández, Bartolomé Ordóñez, Diego de Siloe, Pedro Machuca, Alonso Berruguete.
[...] Returning to their homeland, the Spaniards became ambassadors of a particular declination of the figurative culture of the High Renaissance, supported by extraordinary inventiveness and technical skills, to which the passage of Spain within the imperial structure of Charles V gave a European breath. The exhibition focuses attention on this short but very happy season, placing due emphasis on the very high quality of the works and their cosmopolitan character. At the basis of the exhibition itinerary there is the conviction that that flowering saw a very close connection between painting and sculpture. The confrontation between the so-called «sister arts» found particularly fertile ground in Naples for the elaboration of models which contributed to the definition of an autonomous local school, of which the exhibition offers a wide selection of the major protagonists, from the painters Andrea Sabatini from Salerno and Marco Cardisco to the sculptors Giovanni da Nola and Girolamo Santacroce. Let's move on to the images of the works that we will try to illustrate with our modest means. And the lobsters? to see them...get to the bottom of the page:
So, shall we talk about these lobsters? We report from the website of the Municipality of Naples: "The Lobster Empire" was inaugurated, an installation of large sculptures by the artist Philip Colbert which for three months, until July 15, will animate the historic Largo San Martino square in Naples. The exhibition is curated by Catherine Loewe, organized by Bam Eventi D'Arte and promoted by the Municipality of Naples. Colbert is one of the most innovative artists of the contemporary scene and has had a global following with his character with the appearance of a lobster similar to a cartoon, his sculptures have recently been installed outdoors also in Venice and Rome in Via Veneto. And we went to Largo San Martino, and we photographed these nice brightly colored sculptures, made of aluminum or stainless steel, while the square was full of tourists:
So let's close this post with the panorama that can be admired from Largo San Martino:
SEE YOU IN NAPLES!!!