GOYA
and the Italian tradition
Fondazione Magnani Rocca
Parma - Mamiano di Traversetolo
9th September – 3rd December 2006
exhibition realized thanks to the contribution of
FONDAZIONE CARIPARMA
CARIPARMA E PIACENZA
UNIONE PARMENSE DEGLI INDUSTRIALI
With the patronage of the Spanish Embassy in the Republic of Italy
Press Vernissage: Friday 8th September 2006, from 11.00 to 15.00
Further information and images: www.studioesseci.net
Press Release
An exhibition which is also a posthumous tribute to a twenty-five-year-old genius, as
yet not entirely understood.
Indeed, when in 1771 Francisco Goya took part in the celebrated painting competition
of the Parma Academy, he obtained only an honourable second place, behind a
certain Paolo Borroni, the preferred choice of a jury which was highly regarded and
had previously shown itself open to new paths.
Annibale che scorge le terre italiche per la prima volta [Hannibal taking his first sight of
the Italian lands] and Il genio della guerra guida Annibale attraverso le Alpi [The
Genius of War guiding Hannibal over the Alps], the oil paintings by Goya and Borroni,
will confront each other once again, from 9th September to 3rd December, at Mamiano
di Traversetolo, at the foot of the hills of Parma, as the opening of the great exhibition
“GOYA and the Italian Tradition” presented by the Fondazione Magnani Rocca in the
wonderful house-museum which once belonged to Luigi Magnani.
The exhibition, of which Fred Licht and Simona Tosini Pizzetti are the curators, intends
to document and analyze the circumstances which link Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
(1746 – 1828) to Italy and to Parma in particular. Not only did Goya obtain here his
first, if only partial, public recognition, but Maria Luisa, the wife of the hereditary Prince
of Spain and destined to influence considerably the artistic direction of that country,
came from that Court.
By a stroke of good fortune it is with the Fondazione Magnani Rocca that the
masterpiece The Family of the Infante Don Luis, a key work among Goya’s portraits, is
conserved.
In the first of the four sections, the exhibition dwells on the relationship between Goya
and Parma, presenting the winning works of the 1771 competition and also those of
the previous and following years, by Antoine Gibelin-Esprit and Pierre Duhallas
respectively, confirming both the prestige of the Prize awarded by the Parma Academy
and the openness shown by the academicians towards attempts to advance beyond
the still-popular late baroque tradition.
This first section is concluded with two fascinating portraits by Raphael Mengs
depicting Maria Luisa of Parma and her husband Carlos of Bourbon who was to
become King of Spain with the name of Carlos IV.
The second and the third section represent the fulcrum of the exhibition. They permit
us to compare the Italian portrait tradition with the interpretation of the same theme
offered by Francisco Goya who was nonetheless considerably influenced by this
tradition.
Although the artist of Aragon is considered one of the most personal, independent and
significant figures of Spanish art, it is recognized that considerable influence was
exerted on his works by Italian baroque and neo-classical painting, especially that from
the Venetian and Neapolitan areas, as a result of his trip to Italy, during which Goya
principally absorbed the portrait culture of the Roman area, but also came to know
Italian artists who worked at the Madrilenian Court, such as Giambattista Tiepolo, his
son Gian Domenico, and the Neapolitan Corrado Giaquinto.
In the second section an ample sequence of works by Tiepolo, Giaquinto, Traversi,
Baldrighi, Mengs, Kauffman, Batoni, Bonito, Benefial and Ghezzi document the levels
reached by the “Italian single and group portrait in the age of Goya”.
Goya’s “response” to these models, as well as to those of France which then
dominated in Spain, is presented in the third section of the exhibition, which is entirely
dedicated to “Goya the portrait painter”. Here, alongside The Family of the Infante Don
Luis, part of the Magnani Rocca patrimony, are masterpieces loaned by the Prado of
Madrid and other Spanish collections, the National Gallery of Washington, Palazzo
Barberini of Rome, the Uffizi of Florence, the Galleria Nazionale of Parma. The works
exhibited by Goya are all famous, we need only mention The Family of the Dukes of
Osuna, The Marquise of Pontejos, Maria Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga, Countess of
Chinchòn and Queen Maria Luisa.
These are masterpieces which show how Goya, in spite of the rigid pose required by
the official nature of the portraits, was able to achieve a level of psychological
penetration of the characters that can be at times disquieting.
Lastly, in collaboration with the Galleria Mistrali of Parma, a section dedicated to
graphic works presents a comparison between items by Giambattista and Gian
Domenico Tiepolo, Pier Leone Ghezzi and other Italian draughtsmen and Goya’s
celebrated Caprichos, shown complete: a comparison which demonstrates the
enormous leap forward in time and in the very concept of pictorial narration achieved
by Goya, a leap from an epoch on which the sun was setting to the birth of a new
world.
GOYA and the Italian Tradition
Fondazione Magnani Rocca
Via Fondazione Magnani Rocca 4, Parma - Mamiano di Traversetolo.
From 9th September to 3rd December 2006, continuous opening from 10.00 to 18.00;
Closed on Mondays.
Entry € 8.00 (also including the permanent collections).
Curators of the exhibition: Fred Licht and Simona Tosini Pizzetti.
Catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale.
For information and group bookings: Tel. 0521 848327 / 848148
info@magnanirocca.it
www.magnanirocca.it (images can be downloaded from the site).
Fax 0521 848337
Press Office: Studio ESSECI - Sergio Campagnolo
Tel. 049 663499 Fax 049 655098
info@studioesseci.net - www.studioesseci.net (images can be downloaded from the
site)