From 12 September to 13 December 2020, the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, with the title "The Last Romantic", offers a very rich exhibition tribute to its Founder, and does so in the residence that Luigi Magnani transformed into a sumptuous and surprising house-museum, the 'Villa dei Capolavori' in Mamiano di Traversetolo, in the Parma area. A man of culture among the greats of his time, Magnani can legitimately be assumed as a witness of 'Parma Italian Capital of Culture 2020', under whose aegis the exhibition takes place.
Louis Magnani (1906-1984), one of the world's leading art collectors, in his house of wonders he created a true Pantheon of the great artists of every era, a temple that slowly came to life with the acquisition of unique paintings and furnishings, from the Morandis and the gold backgrounds of the beginning, then Titian, Goya, up to to Monet, Renoir and Canova in the last years of his life, in a process of spiritual identification with the works that came to inhabit his home near Parma as the scene of his intellectual life.
The exhibition, with over one hundred magnificent works from famous museums and prestigious collections, intends to tell the story of Luigi Magnani, who loved the dialogue between painting, music, literature, through his interests and the personalities he met or with whom he became passionate. A leading intellectual in twentieth-century Italian culture, as well as a frequent visitor to the most exclusive salons of his time, he was one of the founders of Italia Nostra. The exhibition – curated by Stefano Roffi and Mauro Carrera – presents paintings, portraits, self-portraits and autographed documents of famous artists, critics, musicians, writers, directors, aristocrats, captains of industry frequented by Magnani, from Bernard Berenson to Margaret, sister of the Queen of England, from Eugenio Montale to Giorgio Morandi himself; also pictorial tributes to Magnani's passion for music, rendered by the greatest Italian artists of the twentieth century, from Severini to de Chirico to Guttuso to Pistoletto; important ancient musical instruments; the secrets of the Villa, exceptionally revealed to the public. Finally, the dream of other 'absolute masterpieces' pursued by Magnani but not conquered, which will reach the Villa dei Capolavori on the occasion of the exhibition and will be revealed; the first big dream come true is the famous painting The knight in pink by Giovan Battista Moroni, a sixteenth-century masterpiece, a gem of Palazzo Moroni in Bergamo, which, after the Frick Collection in New York, is now being exhibited at the Magnani-Rocca Foundation for the duration of the exhibition.
What is now called 'Villa dei Capolavori' is still inhabited by the spirit of beauty, and still shows sublime purity and form, as Magnani wanted it, of which it represents the complete self-portrait, as the collection preserved in Venice is for Peggy Guggenheim ; a 'museum of the soul' has been created in the Villa in which paintings by the great masters of the past, worthy of the most important museums in the world, alongside early XNUMXth-century furnishings worthy of a Napoleonic residence, tell about themselves and the life of those who live there has collected and kept, in dialectic with some of the symbolic works of the contemporary world.
Through things, the memorable encounters and very fine conversations that took place there come back to life, when together with Magnani, over a plate of steaming anolini, Morandi and Arcangeli magically found topics to share shortly before the sensational break between the painter and the critic, or when Ungaretti, after a walk in the park, left a poem for his friend Luigi, or when Guttuso celebrated the New Year's Eve in the Villa paying homage to Magnani with the carnality of his works. The European cultural and aristocratic elite passed through these halls, commented on a painting, listened to the fascinating stories of the landlord, while Mozart's notes acted as a counterpoint to the masterpieces of the famous ancient and contemporary masters, witnesses of the great history of 'Europe.
A painting alone would be worth the trip to Luigi Magnani's Villa: it is the great painting by Francisco Goya The family of the Infante Don Luis (1783-1784), perhaps the most revolutionary court portrait in the entire history of painting. Also exceptional are the three Madonnas with Child by Filippo Lippi, Albrecht Dürer, Domenico Beccafumi, painted fifty years apart from each other; other unmissable works are Ghirlandaio, Carpaccio, Rubens, Van Dyck, the Tiepolos, Füssli, but unique are the precious Stigmata of St. Francis by Gentile da Fabriano and the unforgettable Sacred conversation by Titian (1513). The magnificence of pictorial masterpieces translates into sculpture in Terpsichore by Canova and in the two female figures by Bartolini.
The contemporary nucleus is dominated by the fifty works by Giorgio Morandi, gathered during the painter's life within a relationship of esteem and friendship with Magnani. Another Emilian painter in the collection is Filippo de Pisis, with a group of intense and dramatic paintings. Among other works by Italian artists, an amazing one stands out Dancer futurist by Gino Severini, a metaphysical square by Giorgio de Chirico, some works by Renato Guttuso and considerable sculptures by Giacomo Manzù and Leoncillo. Also very important bag by Alberto Burri from 1954, which Magnani considered his avant-garde bulwark. Among non-Italians, the Villa houses the only room of works by Paul Cézanne in Italy; the marine landscape by Claude Monet is enchanting and the works by Renoir, Matisse, de Staël, Fautrier, Hartung are splendid.
Masterpieces that continue to arouse deep emotions, the highest expression of man's intimate and moved amazement in front of the secret of beauty. Secret that Magnani, reading the beloved Doctor Faustus of Thomas Mann, he recognized in the tension between the irrepressible creative impulse and the inviolable structural laws of art; for this reason he wanted a work by Rembrandt depicting the Doctor Faustus. Magnani was convinced of the ability of art to conclude absolute meanings, as well as of his metaphysical inspiration; for this reason, after a long stay in Rome dedicated to teaching, he retired to his Villa in Mamiano, among his chosen friends and beloved works of art. Here, as already for Magnani, the silent joy of gazing upon these sublime fragments of human history dwells for all of us, collected until his death, which occurred in 1984 at the age of seventy-eight, after a life spent in spiritual dialogue with the greats of culture, real or ideal guests of his splendid residence. The path of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation had begun with its establishment by Magnani in 1977, with the intention of allocating its art treasures to the enjoyment of all, in memory of his parents, giving Parma and Italy a little Versailles. The opening of the Villa to the public took place thirty years ago, in April 1990. Thus the works of an almost legendary collection that belonged to one of the most eclectic cultural personalities of the XNUMXth century were revealed: Magnani was in fact a writer, essayist, art historian , composer, music critic and, with his research and writings on Correggio, Morandi, Mozart, Beethoven, Goethe, Stendhal, Proust, was able, like few others, to reunite the reasons of feeling and those of the intellect.
The Ultimate Romantic. Luigi Magnani the lord of the Villa dei Capolavori
Magnani-Rocca Foundation, via Magnani-Rocca Foundation 4, Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma).
Cover image: Paul Cézanne, Tasse et plat de cerises, 1890
