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MOSTRA: La vita di Michelangelo. Carte, poesie, lettere e disegni autografi, Siena, Complesso Museale di Santa Maria della Scala (Piazza del Duomo, tel. 0577-224811), 4 settembre - 14 novembre 2010. Orario: tutti i giorni, festivi compresi, dalle ore 10,30 alle ore 19,30.

La mostra ripercorre - attraverso lettere, poesie, carte di cantiere e altri documenti  - tutta la vita di Michelangelo, ponendo l’accento sulla presenza e l’operato del grande artista a Siena. Queste straordinarie testimonianze autografe provengono dall’Archivio Buonarroti, di proprietà della Fondazione Casa Buonarroti, che raccoglie le carte di famiglia. Curata da Lucilla Bardeschi Ciulichi e Pina Ragionieri,  l’esposizione è realizzata su progetto scientifico della Fondazione stessa e, per la sede di Siena, si è avvalsa della consulenza scientifica di Gabriele Fattorini.

Si incontrano prove grafiche di alto impegno, quali i disegni scelti qui con l’occhio fisso al risvolto biografico, siano essi di figura o di progetto architettonico, provenienti direttamente dai cantieri e dalle cave (come i famosi blocchi di marmo schizzati a beneficio degli scalpellini) o di fortificazioni. Questi ultimi rimandano all’esperienza eroica ed effimera della seconda repubblica fiorentina, che trovò in Michelangelo un convinto e partecipe sostenitore.

Sono inoltre presenti uno splendido disegno di Giuliano da Sangallo, contenuto nel famoso Taccuino senese, che documenta l’aspetto dell’altare Piccolomini (realizzato da Andrea Bregno e arricchito dal giovane Michelangelo tra il 1501 e il 1504 con l’aggiunta, nelle nicchie inferiori, delle quattro statue di santi Pietro, Paolo, Agostino e Gregorio) prima degli interventi michelangioleschi, e tre sculture di ambito senese - il San Vittore e il Bacco di Antonio Federighi e l’opera di Cesare Maccari raffigurante Vittoria Colonna meditante un madrigale direttole da Michelangelo - che riportano a una  suggestiva atmosfera proto- michelangiolesca.

Fonte: MiBAC

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EXHIBITION: From Line to Light: Renaissance Drawing in Florence and Venice, The J. Paul Getty Museum (1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California 90049), July 20 - October 10, 2010.

Some of the jewels of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collection are featured in this exhibition, which explores the birth of modern drawing practice during the Italian Renaissance (1480–1550). During this period, drawing transitioned from a slavish part of the design process to an esteemed and independent activity.

Building on the innovations of Leonardo da Vinci, who popularized “brainstorm” sheets filled with ideas as well as the use of red chalk, artists explored new possibilities for the medium. In Florence and Rome the human figure was studied intensively through life drawing, while in Venice artists embraced the use of blue paper and the keen study of light and composition.

Drawing in Venice and the Veneto
Venetian drawing sought pictorial effects through fragmented forms, depictions of light and shade, and a concentration on atmosphere over precise detail. Venetian draftsmen popularized blue-colored paper, which provided a useful midtone for such effects. A tradition emerged of small, meticulous drawings made in pen and ink or with a fine brush. Later, black chalk was adopted, allowing broad forms and intense contrast, a good match for the blue paper.

The simple beauty of the portrait above belies the extraordinary technical virtuosity with which it was made. Black chalk was used with almost infinite subtlety on the cheek, and in the shadows of the headdress a web of short, dancing lines render the texture. A few touches of white chalk below the eyes and at the edge of her right cheek provide hints of stronger light.

Drawing in Florence and Rome
In both Florence and Rome, drawing became a central activity in every artist’s studio. Making sketches on paper was a vital component of artists’ training and of every step in the creative process toward making paintings and sculpture.

Red chalk and metalpoint (using a metal-tipped instrument to work on specially prepared paper) were favored media. Life drawing—usually with readily available studio apprentices modeling as saints or martyrs—was used extensively to aid the realistic depiction of primarily religious scenes.

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EXHIBITION: Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art, The British Library (Paccar Gallery, St Pancras, 96 Euston Road, London NW1), 30 April - 19 September 2010. Exhibition opening hours: Monday 09.30-18.00, Tuesday 09.30-20.00, Wednesday-Friday 09.30-18.00, Saturday 09.30-17.00, Sunday and English public holidays 11.00-17.00. Admission is free.

Maps can be works of art, propaganda and indoctrination. Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art offers a rare chance to see an unrivalled collection of cartographic masterpieces that were intended for display side-by-side with the world’s greatest paintings and sculptures.

Drawn from the 4½ million items held in the British Library’s cartographic collections - the greatest map collection in the world - this new exhibition will showcase over 80 of the most impressive wall-maps ever created, dating from 200AD to the present day, most of which have never been seen before.

Recreating the settings in which they would have originally been seen - from the palace to the schoolroom, the exhibition reveals how maps express an enormous variety of differing world views, using size and beauty to convey messages of status and power.

Highlights include:
* Fra Mauro World Map c.1450 by William Frazer, 1804 - a hand-drawn copy of the first great modern world map, made for the British East India Company as self-perceived heirs of the Portuguese empire in the Asia
* Confiance - ses Amputations se Poursuivent, 1944 - a German propaganda poster portraying Churchill as an octopus, drawing on earlier comic maps
* The Klencke Atlas, 1660 - the largest atlas in the world, and intended to be a summary of the world’s knowledge, produced for the exclusive appreciation of Charles II of England on his restoration to the throne, now on show for the first time to the general public
* Chinese Terrestrial Globe by Nicola Longobardi / Bartolomeo Dias, 1623 - the earliest Chinese terrestrial Globe, made by Jesuit missionaries for the Chinese Emperor
* A Chart of the Mediterranean Sea by Diogo Homem, 1570 - a luxury map with gold leaf possibly produced for royalty, made after Homem fled from exile in Morocco for his involvement in a murder in Portugal
* Americae, sive quartae orbis partis, nova et exactissima by Diego Gutierrez / Hieronymus Cock, 1562 - a map to flatter King Philip II of Spain and celebrate the Spanish domination of the New World
* World Map by Pierre Desceliers, 1550 - a compendious world map made for the King of France, celebrating the discoveries of Jacques Cartier in Canada, and showing the myths, animals and natural history in their correct place in the world.

The accompanying catalogue, Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art by Peter Barber and Tom Harper has been published by British Library  Publishing in April 2010. Is now available in hardback at £29.95 and paperback at £17.95, with 176 pages, 150 colour illustrations.

The exhibition coincides with two BBC Four series about maps to be broadcast this spring. The British Library and the BBC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Peter Barber, Head of Map Collections at the British Library, is acting as a consultant with the programme makers, with some filming taking place at the Library.

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EXHIBITION: Illuminated Manuscripts from Belgium and the Netherlands, The J. Paul Getty Museum (1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California 90049), August 24 - November 7, 2010 (Part one); November 9, 2010 - February 6, 2011 (Part two).

The splendor of the late medieval court of the dukes of Burgundy evokes the legendary Camelot. Its magnificence was expressed in lavish banquets, pageants, and tournaments, as well as luxury goods such as tapestries, paintings, metalwork, and particularly illuminated manuscripts.

This exhibition traces the tradition of Netherlandish manuscript painting from the 12th century to its extraordinary flowering in the 15th and 16th centuries. By the mid-1400s the Burgundians held sway over much of the Netherlands, including the prosperous Flemish towns of Ghent and Bruges (in present-day Belgium) and the Dutch city of Utrecht—all important centers of manuscript production. At this time Netherlandish books, especially from Ghent and Bruges, dominated the European market. They were created for an international clientele of princes, dukes, cardinals, bishops, and wealthy burghers.

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