The exhibition, curated by Simona Bartolena and Lorenza Tonani, is a project promoted by the Villa Reale and Monza Park Consortium, produced and organized by ViDi in collaboration with the Gaiani Foundation and the Municipality of Monza.
For the first time and precisely in the city of Monza, the symbolic place for the historical events of Marianna and Manzoni of Virginia, the exhibition presents an unprecedented path of knowledge of the Nun between historical truth and literary transposition, to continue with a section, of considerable didactic interest that investigates the theme of malmonacate in history.
Marianna de Leyva, in religion Sister Maria Virginia, lived between 1500 and 1600; hers is a tormented existence that is intertwined with the life and culture of seventeenth-century Milan. At the behest of the family she is forced to become a nun and to enter the convent of Santa Margherita in Monza. In her early twenties, by choice of her father, she was named Countess of Monza, hence the nickname "Signora". By administering the city virtuously, you earn the respect and goodwill of your fellow citizens. Following her meeting with Gian Paolo Osio who becomes her lover and will lead her to perdition; she with him she will share the secret of heinous crimes. She subjected to ecclesiastical trial and forced into prison she begins a spiritual journey of redemption by choosing solitude and repentance in convent life, "true penance": a painful and convinced expiation.
The exhibition itinerary offers 33 works including important paintings, engravings, documents, evocative videos and illustrations created specifically for the exhibition in order to investigate the life, history, passions of one of Manzoni's most important characters, but also the theme of the female condition in the early modern age.
Through the pictorial works - from prestigious public collections including the GAM of Milan, the Brera Academy, the Civic Museums of Pavia, the Civic Museums of Brescia, the Civic Graphic and Photographic Collections and the Cabinet of Drawings of the Castello Sforzesco of Milan, the Civic Museums of Monza, the Diocesan Archive of Milan, the Casa Manzoni – the theme of entry into the convent is addressed as an economic expedient adopted by the families of the time to limit the dispersion of the heritage. The paintings also reveal the reality of the convent world, the desperation of the nuns at times but also the strategies designed to better experience their condition, such as the relationship with nature.
A graphic compendium, with illustrations by Jacopo Vecchio and Amalia Mora, delves into the lesser-known moments in Gertrude's story and the theme of malmonacation in literature.
In the Appiani rotunda room, through video contributions, the process that condemned the Nun to be "walled up alive" is reconstructed.
The videos – made in collaboration with the theater company La Sarabanda – report the most significant testimonies extracted from the original acts of the trial stages displayed along the way.
The exhibition is part of the program of celebrations on the trail of the nun of Monza which will involve the whole Brianza city with exhibitions, theatrical performances, meetings and itineraries to celebrate this extraordinary character.
