Treviso: Casa dei Carraresi - The Magic of India Exhibition

 

photograph courtesy The Magic of India

Treviso: Casa dei Carraresi - The Magic of India Exhibition. At the Casa dei Carraresi in Treviso, The Magic of India: from the Temple to the Court, Masterpieces of Indian Art exhibition, until May 31st 2014, is curated by Adriano Madaro, Renzo Freschi and Marilia Albanese. For the first time in Italy an exhibition dedicated to India covers the period from the 2nd millennium BC to the time of the Maharajas. Architectural elements, miniatures, photographs, everyday and ritual objects, costumes, textiles, jewels, statues and reliefs from important museums and private collections are displayed in recreations of their original settings.

Above: The Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji, 1815/1820, miniature, hills of Punjab.

 

photograph by manfredi bellati

The Magic of India Exhibition - Press Conference. Curators, sponsors and dignitaries at the press conference. Holding a copy of her book Rosa Maria Cimino, Franco Ricca, director of the Museum of  the Arti Orientale in Turin, Anna Maria Quagliotti, co-curators Renzo Freschi and Adriano Madaro, sponsor and president of the Fondazione Cassamarca Dino De Poli, co-curator Marilia Albanese and Gianni Garatti president of the Treviso tourism consortium.

 

photograph by manfredi bellati

 Buddha with Two Bodhisattvas: Eastern India, Pala dynasty 10-11th C., Basalt.

Buddha Head: Northern India, Mathura Kushana dynasty, 3rd C., sandstone.

 

Renzo Freschi and Franco Ricca visit the exhibition, they are looking at Stupa Votive Reliquary, Gandhara region, 2-3rd C., rock crystal.

 

Co-curator Marilia Albanese.

 

Dakshina Kali: Kali, the “Black”, terrible form of Goddess, is standing on Shiva’s body, Northern India, 19th C., tempera on paper.

 

Krishna and The Shepardesses (Gopi): Northern India, Rajasthan, 18th C., pigment and gold leaf on cotton.  This work is also the cover of beautiful catalogue, The Magic of India: from the Temple to the Court, Masterpieces of Indian Art published by Edizioni Sigillvm.

 

The Magic of India: The architects of the Milanese studio AL14 Marco Sala, Giovanna Colombo and Gloria Zanardo, who curated the display. The exhibition is divided into two sections: “The Art of Classical India” and “The India of the Maharajas”. In Indian culture the two poles of the Temple and the Court are in no sense contradictory, and are not be seen in the typically Western dualistic terms of the sacred and the profane.

photograph courtesy The Magic of India

The Maharaja of Amar Singh II and a Concubine:           Northern India, southern Rajasthan, Mewar School, 1698-1710, tempera on paper. 

 

Female Torso: Central India, 10-11th C., sandstone.

 photograph by manfredi bellati

 The Maharaja Jaswant Singh with the Maharani: Northern India, Rajasthan, C.1880, oil on canvas.

 

 

 Magnificent Weaves: with Jain Procession Altar in the foreground.

 

  Detail of Lehenga, Ceremonial Skirt with Peacocks, Northern India, Rajasthan, silk and gold decoration.

 

Magnificent Weaves: Sushama Swarup curator of the Magnificent Weaves section, she is an expert in Indian culture, textiles and antique costumes from the Awadh region.

 

Images of a Bygone Age: Prints made from late 19th C. photographic glass plates.

Images of a Bygone Age: Prints made from late 19th C. photographic glass plates.

Phad, Painted Backdrop of the Wandering Minstrels, with the story of Pubuji: Northern India, Rajasthan, 19th C., painted cotton.

 

Asti: D. Barbero1883 – Nougat and Chocolate Factory

Asti: D. Barbero1883 – Nougat and Chocolate Factory. In the center of Asti in the Monferrato region of Northen Italy is the D. Barbero 1883 nougat and chocolate factory, museum and shop. It was five generations ago in 1883 that Melchiorre Barbero first gained permission to produce the famous nougat "Torroni e Noasetti". Today as in the past, the typical Piedmontese crumbly type of nougat and the gianduja chocolates are a real treats for experts and sweet lovers. The nougat produced according to the old traditional recipe of the town of Asti has recently received the Italian brand DE.C.O. that is to say "Local Denomination of Origin". 

D. Barbero 1883 – The Museum.  In the museum Gianni Barbero (who runs the family business with his nephew Davide Maddaleno) explains the old machinery, the original documents and the old photos, which are treasured in the "Collection of Old Machinery for Chocolate Production".  The tour ends with a tasting of special products.

 

D. Barbero 1883 - The Shop: Torroncino Cream and Chocolate and Torroncino Cream are ideal to spread on bread, breadsticks and the taste is considerably exalted if spread on a cracker, pate brise and savory baked goods.

 

D. Barbero 1883 - The shop. Maria wraps up the chocolate goodies in the shop.

 

 D. Barbero1883 - The Shop. Chocolate covered Rubata Breadsticks, the Piedmontese breadsticks are covered with extra plain chocolate.

 

photograph by manfredi bellati

D. Barbero1883 – The Museum.  Advertising the company during the 38th Giro d’Italia, the annual bicycle stage race in 1955.

 

D. Barbero 1883 – The Museum.   In the early twentieth century, this antique custom made travelling suitcase housed the sample range.

D. Barbero 1883 - The shop. A reproduction of antique tin boxes holds various nougats and gianduiotti chocolates.

 

Solighetto (Treviso): Villa Brandolini – Turbamenti della Forma - Valerio Bellati - Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda exhibition.

 

Turbamenti della Forma: Valerio Bellati – Untitled c. 1990.

Turbamenti della Forma:  Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda – Untitled c. 1996.

 

Solighetto (Treviso): Villa Brandolini – Turbamenti della Forma - Valerio Bellati - Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda exhibition. In the Prosecco hills in the province of Treviso, the beautiful retrospective exhibition Turbamenti della Forma, paintings by Valerio Bellati and Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda, curated by Corrado Castellani, until November 10 (open Fridays and Saturdays 16-19 and Sundays 10-12 16-19). Emotional Turmoil of the Form displays the abstract works of the late aristocrates, neighbours and friends, who exercised a significant influence in the artistic circles of Treviso. 

 

Villa Brandolini: Turbamenti della Forma exhibition - Valerio Bellati -Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda.   Count Sebastiano Brandolini d’Adda and Count Massimiliano Bellati, sons of the painters are photographed between the curator of the exhibition, Corrado Castellani. "In the last decades of the  twentieth century lived not far away from each other, two painters, educated and refined: Valerio Bellati and Yasmin Brandolini d'Adda.”  Said the curator Corrado Castellani. “The aristocrats, admired each other. Both had completed in their youth solid art studies, the first steps of a promising career, but both, because of the accidents of life had discontinued their artistic militancy, renewed with systematic concentration in later life. After living in the cultural crossroads of Venice and Milan, where they assimilated the excitement of the avant-garde movement, they retreated to the family seats of Premaor and Cison, in the hills of Treviso, and transfered their assimilated experiences into thoughtful personal journeys. Bellati directed towards the informal  and Brandolini d’Adda towards abstraction, they explored their art with absolute rigor and persuasion, not subject to the changes of ephemeral styles.” Castellani concludes.

 

Turbamenti della Forma:  Valerio Bellati – Untitled c. 1990.

 

Turbamenti della Forma: Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda – Untitled c. 1990.

 

Villa Brandolini: A view of the garden at Villa Brandolini in Solighetto, which also houses the soprano, Toti Dal Monte Museum.

Villa Bellati: At the reception following the opening of the exhibition Turbamenti della Forma - Valerio Bellati - Yasmin Brandolini d’Adda, Michelin starred local chef Gigetto cooks up a delicious  Mushroom Risotto.