The extraordinary union between the arts in Palermo between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries for the first time in a major exhibition "SERPOTTA AND ITS TIME" open until 1 October next.
The exhibition, under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, is promoted and organized by the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Italia e Mediterraneo, in collaboration with the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis, and organized by Civita Sicilia.
The exhibition curated by Vincenzo Abbate, a distinguished scholar of Palermo art collecting, for many years director of the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis, the exhibition is a further stage in the commitment of the Third Pillar Foundation - Italy and the Mediterranean and its President Prof. Avv. Emmanuele FM Emanuele for the enhancement of Sicilian culture and its highest artistic expressions.
Giacomo Serpotta contributed not only to revolutionizing the art of stucco, making it rise to the very dignity of marble, but to giving an elegant decorative look to churches and oratories thanks also to the sensitivity and economic availability of important religious orders and wealthy brotherhoods and companies. But the architect Giacomo Amato was the coordinating mind of that happy artistic season in Palermo, between the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, from which sprang a refined production of the highest quality level - often at destination and on vice-regal commissions, in addition than noble and ecclesiastical – which contributed to further opening the capital of the Viceroyalty of Sicily towards Europe.
Giacomo Amato, oriented towards a Baroque classicism in his architectural work, but essentially eclectic in other activities that see him as an imaginative creator of refined decorative and applied art objects, represents "a sort of reference pole, a catalyst for scattered energies , of organizer and refined mentor” (Paolini). In the small circle of his direct collaborators we find the favorite and congenial interpreters of his inventions: talented designers such as Antonino Grano or Pietro Dell'Aquila, skilled plasterers coordinated by the eminent personality of Giacomo Serpotta, chosen workers of goldsmiths, coral workers, cabinet makers, carvers. The itinerary of the exhibition, on the ground floor of the Oratorio dei Bianchi, is entirely dedicated to Serpotta and it is possible to admire at close range the stuccoes from the Church of the Stigmata, detached before its destruction at the end of the 1684th century to make way for the Teatro Massimo. The drawings and sketches on display allow us to get to the heart of the process of that 'poor' technique that the great modeller from Palermo was able to bring to the highest levels of art. On the first floor we find closely related but non-standard thematic sections, so that the works can dialogue with each other. Many paintings that come from religious buildings are compared with the great architectures exemplified in the exhibition by the splendid preparatory drawings by Giacomo Amato, of which they highlight the true innovative result, i.e. the overcoming of the Baroque culture of the sixties and seventies of the century towards a turning point in a strictly Roman classicist direction, thanks also to his stay in the papal city which lasted until XNUMX. The extraordinary precious objects in the rich section of the decorative arts, for private use or liturgical furnishings, instead highlight the fundamental role of a sector the driving force behind the economy of Palermo, the capital of the viceroyalty of Sicily, was that of sumptuary production, of large ecclesiastical and noble clients, of the value and excellent manual skills of the city workers in the creation of silverware, furniture, embroidery and various furnishings.
The Scientific Committee of the exhibition is composed of Sergio Aguglia, Director of the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis; Gioacchino Barbera, former Director of the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis; Evelina De Castro, scientific director of the collections of the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis; Maria Concetta Di Natale, Full Professor of Museology and History of Collecting and History of Applied Arts and Goldsmithing at the University of Palermo; Maria Giuffrè, Historian of Architecture, former Full Professor of the University of Palermo; Marco Rosario Nobile, Full Professor of History of Architecture at the University of Palermo; Pierfrancesco Palazzotto, Associate Professor at the University of Palermo and Deputy Director of the Diocesan Museum of Palermo
