The protagonists are four important works, including a pair of paintings by Pompeo Batoni with Prometheus models man out of clay e Atalanta mourns Meleager, made for the Marquis Sardini of Lucca. The tondo with theAdoration of the Child di Lorenzo DiCredi, one of the finest examples by the artist who had worked alongside Leonardo in Verrocchio's workshop. Three compartments of polyptych, with St. John Baptist, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, St. Nicholas of Tolentino di Bartolomeo Vivarini (on this occasion the recomposition of the Tagliapietra polyptych in the Galleria dell'Accademia, to which the three compartments belonged, is proposed for the first time). In the end The allegory of the city of Parma presented to the Virgin, very rare panel and masterpiece by Giorgio Gandini Del Grano, the pupil of Correggio who had been commissioned to finish the master's frescoes in the cathedral of Parma after the painter's death.
The exhibition, rethinking the important collecting events of the exhibited works, aims to be an opportunity to reflect on what drives us to collect works of art. The butterfly hunt, in fact, is nothing but the path fraught with joys, obstacles, stumbling blocks, loves, passions, mistakes, and strokes of luck that every aspiring collector undertakes without knowing exactly what he's getting into.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with an introduction by Gian Enzo Sperone. The testimony of one of the greatest gallery owners of our times, whose tastes ranged from gold backgrounds to the contemporary, is the best way to understand the attitude of those who approach collecting without prejudice and with open eyes, trying to understand greatness even beyond one's own limits and knowledge, as often happens to butterfly hunters.
“Let's say that the collector's journey is almost a via crucis, and right from the first stations you come across that insidious beast that is the sense of guilt (even the doctor's pills make you feel good, but they have side effects).
The very high quality of the works and names of artists often studied at school exalts you but then, after the hangover, pour cause, can also demean you. For those who didn't understand, I'm talking about first-magnitude stars, which are the brightest and a little more expensive.
I, who have spent a third of my life in an (infamous) Rome-New York commuter routine, how could I have set aside sufficient resources to appease the appetite (which, as we know, comes with eating) of a collector than the "first magnitude" implied? It's a bit like the high jump bar, over two meters.
In my defense I would like to remind myself, more than anything else, that I was busy collecting, in addition to modern paintings, eighteenth-century furniture, designer pendulum clocks, antique prints, Indian miniatures, illustrated books, etc…; sorry for the outburst.
I had not foreseen the encounter with a new «little problem», now that I had come to terms with it and the collecting elite (the Etros, Luigi Koelliker, Mario Scaglia, Francesco Cerruti, the modernists Panza di Biumo and Annibale Berlingeri) by now I followed her in books, catalogues, serenely reflecting on these by now unattainable models (and without feeling complexed by my dispersal), but here comes the August XNUMXth blow, as if the abundance of trouble this summer wasn't enough. That devil Carlo Orsi has just announced to me that his next exhibition in Milan will have the following paintings: four masterpieces, including Lorenzo di Credi, Bartolomeo Vivarini, and Pompeo Batoni, (but where will he ever go to find them?). Unless my aunt from America decides"
