On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Gallerie d'Italia in Vicenza, Intesa Sanpaolo opens to the public from 11 October 2024 to 9 February 2025 "THE“The Fall of the Rebel Angels” by Francesco Bertos, edited by Monica De Vincenti and Fernando Mazzocca
The exhibition also features works never exhibited before from the deposits of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Milan. On display are over 40 works from important national and international museums such as Palazzo Madama and Palazzo Reale in Turin, Ca' Rezzonico and Museo Correr in Venice, Museo Arqueologico Nacional in Madrid, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon in Versailles as well as from private collections and the Intesa Sanpaolo collection.
The central work of the exhibition is Bertos' masterpiece "Fall of the rebel angels"
This is a spectacular marble sculpture recently attributed to the author, belonging to the Intesa Sanpaolo collection. In a space next to it, the visitor is led to discover the work with tactile reproductions (designed for people with visual impairments), an exciting immersive video, an interview with the art historian Monica De Vincenti (also in LIS language) and the visual story of the 3D transposition of the sculpture, in order to guarantee the enjoyment of the work to all audiences.
Carved from a single block of Carrara marble and composed of about sixty figures perfectly finished in every detail, the work represents the celestial battle between the army of good and that of evil, commanded by the archangel Michael and the other by Satan, as told in theApocalypse by Giovanni. The work was originally intended to decorate the gallery of the noble Trento family's palace in Padua, but the sculpture's fame increased when, in the 1858th century, it passed, along with the Trento palace, to the brothers Francesco and Alessandro Papafava, who were linked to prominent figures in politics, culture and art of the time. The marble was admired by Antonio Canova, celebrated by Bennassu Montanari, analyzed by Count Leopoldo Cicognara, by the theologian Antonio Rosmini and by the author of Moby Dick, Hermann Melville, who dedicated a conference to it in Cincinnati in XNUMX.
The exhibition itinerary
The exhibition itinerary outlines the context in which the artist found himself working, the illustrious patrons – some of whom are portraits – and the most appreciated personalities of the time who were close to the artist and influenced his artistic life, such as the Venetian Giovanni Bonazza and the Florentine Giovanni Battista Foggini, some of whose sculptures are present in the exhibition, and the Flemish Giambologna, whose compositions – such as the Rape of Sabina – were always an inspiration for Bertos’s most original sculptures. Also on display is a selection of paintings – by artists such as Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, Andrea Commodi, Antonio Bellucci, Sebastiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Giovanni Antonio Guardi and Giambattista Tiepolo – to recreate the figurative universe in which Bertos moved.
Michael Coppola, Executive Director Art Culture and Historical Heritage Intesa Sanpaolo, states: “On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Gallerie d'Italia in Vicenza, which are at the origin of the Intesa Sanpaolo Culture Project, we have created a path dedicated to the exceptional sculpture “Fall of the Rebel Angels” by Bertos, a masterpiece from the collections owned by the Bank and permanently exhibited at Palazzo Leoni Montanari. Thanks to the rigorous in-depth analysis of the curators and the presence of precious loans, which attest to the credibility of our commitment, the exhibition allows the rediscovery of the great Venetian master, offering the city new contributions of knowledge and beauty.”
The Vicenza museum, together with those in Milan, Naples and Turin, is part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Gallerie d'Italia museum project, led by Michele Coppola, Executive Director of Art, Culture and Historic Heritage of the Bank.