Venice: Palazzo Fortuny - Fortuny and Wagner
- Wagnerism in the visual arts in Italy.
The exhibition, Fortuny and Wagner - Wagnerism in the visual arts in
Italy at the Fortuny Museum, until April 8, and curated by Paolo Bolpagni,
installation by Daniela Ferretti, marks the bicentennial of Richard Wagner's birth
(Leipzig, 1813 - Venice, 1883) in 2013. It is the result of lengthy studies on
the influence that the German composer and the “Wagnerism” phenomenon had at an
iconographic and aesthetic level on the visual arts in Italy from the end of
the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century. This is
the very first time this theme has been studied or been the object of an
exhibition.
Above: In the
glorious setting of Palazzo Fortuny, sculptures from the Mariano Fortuny
collection, undated gypsum, patinated gypsum. Glasses for clouds’ projections,
c. 1905, tempera on glass.
The VIP Ladies, President of The Venice International
Foundation Franca Coin, architect and curator of the Fortuny Museum, who also
is the installation designer of the exhibition Daniela Ferretti and Gabriella
Belli director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di
Venezia, the institution that looks
after the eleven Venetian museums.
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Contessnally
note: Venice Foundation goes international. This Autumn, Friends of Venice,
Italy Inc. was born. Friends of Venice,
Italy aims to encourage and offer new opportunities for encounters between
institutions and organizations that enliven Venice socially, culturally,
environmentally and economically and to support innovative ideas, helping their
creation, in order to, contribute to the diffusion of knowledge and a greater
awareness of the problems and emergencies Venice faces, and to help to preserve
its heritage and its identity.
Palazzo Fortuny - Fortuny and Wagner - Wagnerism in the
visual arts in Italy. Mariano Fortuny
(1871-1949) played a key role, as he was the author of a Wagnerian Cycle with
46 paintings (all belonging to the museum) and numerous engravings; the entire
cycle is on display here for the very first time. The museum is the perfect
place for an exhibition like this: Spanish by birth but Venetian by adoption,
Mariano Fortuny was greatly influenced by the figure of Richard Wagner who, in
turn, had a very intense relationship with the city, and spent long periods of
his life there.
Above: The Studio of the Artist, undated, tempera on
canvas by Mariano Fortuny and a Self-Portrait, 1947, tempera on cardboard.
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Giuseppe Tivoli’s Portrait of Richard Wagner, 1883,
oil on canvas.
From the City of Leipzig, Thomas Krakow coordinator of The Year, Richard Wagner 2013, president of the Associazione Richard Wagner di
Venezia Alessandra Althoff Pugliese and the director of Klinger Forum Museum in
Leipzig Goerg Zochert.
Courtesy
Palazzo Fortuny, Musei Civici di Venezia
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Palazzo Fortuny - Fortuny and Wagner - Wagnerism in
the visual arts in Italy. The characters
and vicissitudes of Wagner’s musical dramas (Valkyries, Nibelungs,
maiden-flowers, Parsival, Siegfrieds, Tristans ...) occur repeatedly in the
paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, illustrations and postcards during that
period in both Italy and the rest of Europe.
Above: Mariano Fortuny, Wagnerian Cycle – Parsifal,
The Flower Maidens, 1896, oil on canvas.
Palazzo Fortuny - Fortuny and Wagner - Wagnerism in
the visual arts in Italy. Curator of the
exhibition Paolo Bolpagni, “Wagnerism was a true cultural fashion that, in its
diverse expressions (literary, musical, and painting) enjoyed widespread and
profound diffusion. In the field of the visual arts it was one of the most
typical manifestations of the aesthetic style at the turn of the eighteenth
century, between late Naturalism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau.”
The beautifully restored, with micro financing from
The Venice International Foundation, Mariano Fortuny’s stage model for The
Reingold applied Bayreuth’s Theatre model, 1903.
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Bayreuth Theatre
floor plan, undated, pencil ink and tempera on paper.
Courtesy
Palazzo Fortuny, Musei Civici di Venezia
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Self- Portrait, 1890,
photograph.
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Architect and curator of
the Fortuny Museum, who also is the installation designer of the exhibition
Daniela Ferretti is photographed with Mariano Fortuny’s original mannequins.
Model of Villa Pisani in Stra, Sante Benato and
Giovanni Gloria from a drawing by Gerolamo Frigimelica, carved and painted
wood, c. 1720.
Head of the restoration team Stefano Provinciali.
In the foreground, Teodoro Wolf Ferrari’s Notte, 1898,
oil on canvas.
Architect Barbara Foscari and the Dean of
Architecture, IUAV University of Venice
Amerigo Restucci.
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo.
Giuseppe Barbieri, professor of
History of Modern Art and director of the department of Art History of Ca' Foscari University and Silvia Burini Pro-Rector
at Ca’ Foscari University.
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo’s The Discord, undated,
tempera on canvas.
Barbara Berlingieri
Joan Brossa – Antoni Tapies, Carrer de Wagner, 1989,
artist’s book.
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo – Costumes: L-R Cloak,
Jago’s costume c. 1935. Stage costume, after 1910. Surcoat after 1920. All
printed silk velvet.
Contessnally note: the famous Fortuny printed cloth on the wall.
Luxury lace fabric designer Nadia La Valle.
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo’ s famous Delphos silk
taffeta pleated dress with glass beads, after 1909, Manifattura Fortuny. Printed silk gauze cloth on the walls after
1910.
Contemporary jewelry and glass designer Maria Grazia Rosin.
Antoni Tapies, Urbilder (Diptych), 1988, oil on canvas.
Palazzo Fortuny - Fortuny and Wagner - Wagnerism in
the visual arts in Italy: The
Bayreuth Theatre. Buy a seat and contribute through micro financing to the
restoration, organized by The Venice International Foundation, of this historic
model. Since 1891 Mariano
Fortuny was completely captivated by the allure of the staging of Wagner’s
theatre, however many years passed before he concretely measured himself
against the theatre experimenting at length with both lighting and technology
and the preparation of scenographic sketches. It was in fact starting
with the realization of scenographies linked to the works of Wagner that the
model (at top) was born in 1903. Made of wood and metal and now kept in
the Fortuny atelier, it is a reconstruction of the layout and the risers
of the setting of the German Bayreuth Theatre.