The choice of this exhibition space in Bologna is linked precisely to the size of this exhibition. The cartoon, as is known, is a drawing as large as the work or part of the work that the artist intends to create. Should this be a painting, a fresco, a stained glass window, a mosaic or a tapestry, the cardboard is a necessary realization for the work to be completed by the artist himself or by the specialized workers who must materially complete it. And since these cartoons often refer to large and very large projects, they require an equally considerable exhibition space.
What is being revealed here is the extremely precious Collection – a veritable large museum collection – that the Galleria del Laocoon in Rome has brought together, searching for these works either on the art market or from the heirs of the artists. To constitute a sort of art gallery of "huge drawings" which highlights the high level of drawing in the first half of the last century.
They range from Adolfo De Carolis by D'Annunzio, whose large preparatory sheet for the painting Primavera (1903) is on display, to a monumental figure by Mario Sironi which seems to have been carved into the rock with strokes of graphite. The cardboard for the rose window made of colored glass for the Cathedral of Teramo is exhibited by the versatile Duilio Cambellotti, as well as two preparatory drawings for the posters of the film Fabiola, a Christian peplum which was one of the first Italian blockbusters of the immediate post-war period. Two majestic cartoons for the frescoes in the staircase of the INA building in Rome – now the property of the American Embassy – are the work of the almost forgotten Giulio Bargellini (Florence 1875- Rome 1936), a tireless fresco painter of spas, banks and ministries where he Italian the living archeology of Alma Tadema and the female beauties that Klimt had transformed into sumptuous wallpaper. The Galleria del Laocoon is preparing a major exhibition of this artist and the general catalog of works. Achille Funi (Ferrara 1890 – Appiano Gentile, Como 1972) was not only a formidable fresco painter but a modern restorer of the art of Giotto and Piero della Francesca with the intention of reviving ancient history in contemporary Italy, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, telling it to contemporaries as a mythological tale. It is natural that he has the lion's share here, with two rows of Roman soldiers drawn for the Martyrdom of St. George for the church of the same name in Milan in via Torino, the figures of Dido and her sister Anna for the room of the Aeneid, fresco ephemeral executed for the Monza Triennale in 1930, a Knights' Battle in the "Battle" of Legnano for the Council Chamber of the Bergamo Town Hall and finally the Virgin announced, pastel colored cardboard for the painting of the church of San Francesco in Tripoli, in which he depicted his pupil and lover Felicita Frai.
By Gino Severini is a Madonna with Child for the Cathedral of Lausanne. Of Galileo Chini one of the virtues, which adorned the Pavilion of the Exhibitions of the Venice Biennale. The glossy paper cardboard, perforated for dust transfer, has taken on the appearance of an ancient parchment over time, while the figure, whose contours are defined by the charcoal dust left in the holes, has the appearance of a unreal appearance.
Publio Morbiducci (1889-1963), the author of the Monument to the Bersagliere at Porta Pia, is the author of a series of drawings with triumphs of military spoils in which the weapons of classical antiquity are mixed with the modern ones of the last war . They were for large frosted glass panels, but the defeat of those weapons themselves came before the final realization. By the Calabrian Achille Capizzano, author among other things of some mosaics in the Foro Italico, two scenes from the Divine Comedy inspired by ancient woodcuts are presented.
Finally, by Ottone Rosai is a Crucifix Youth suspended almost life-size on a vast sheet, in which the anguish of the drawing to render the anatomy of the body translates into an expressionist appearance of great pathos, in which the sacred image is also sacred representation of his tormented homosexuality.
"It should not be surprising - says Marco Fabio Apolloni - that in the Italian 900s, linked to the return to ancient and traditional decoration techniques, these large sheets survive on which the artist's inspiration, already spent in studies, sketches, models and drafts , has finally been able to find the true measure and the definitive lines of the form of his work.
Of course, tracing the design on the plaster or canvas is only the beginning of the work when it is painting, while the cartoon for mosaic or tapestry is often already colored by the painter and therefore "finished" as far as he is concerned.
In any case, after the cartoon it is rare for the artist to have regrets and therefore there are great differences with respect to the final result. The cardboard is therefore the last place of uncertainties, of second thoughts, of sudden changes in progress. It is the erasures, the corrections, that make the cartoon a sort of paper shroud of all the passion and suffering of an artist in the course of creating his own masterpiece. It is this quality of the cardboard in which the artwork and the working document merge that constitutes his greatest attraction. If the good fresco is imperturbable in its durability, the mosaic is brilliant, the stained glass is resplendent, the cardboard on the other hand not only shows the accidents that occurred during the processing, but time also makes it fragile like an ancient autographed document. Hence its preciousness, the reverence with which it must be treated and displayed".
CARTONS. Huge drawings of the Italian '900. Bologna, Sympò (Church of Santa Maria del Buon Pastore, Via delle Lame 83). Timetable: 10am – 00pm, from 19 to 00 January 25. Exhibition curated by Marco Fabio Apolloni and Monica Cardarelli.
