Monday, June 22, 2020

Conegliano – Palazzo Sarcinelli - Il Racconto della Montagna – Exhibition

poster - su concessione del Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo – courtesy Civita Tre Venezie
Treviso - Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce - Polo Museale del Veneto


 Padova - Courtesy Galleria Nuova Arcadia di L. Franchi - Civita Tre Venezie


"…great cathedrals of the earth, with their rock gates,
floors of clouds, choirs of streams and stones,
snow altars and purple vaults
crossed by a sowing of stars
"
John Ruskin

Palazzo Sarcinelli
Il Racconto della Montagna - nella pittura tra Ottocento e Novecento
The Tale of the Mountains - in painting between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

At Palazzo Sarcinelli, in the charming town of Conegliano situated at the feet of the Dolomite mountains and northwest of Venice the exhibition - Il Racconto della Montagna – nella pittura tra Ottocento e Novecento - The Tale of the Mountains - in painting between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - until December 8 - is curated by Giandomenico Romanelli and Franca Lugato. The exhibition is aimed at deepening the theme of the mountains, which presents itself already in significant form in Italian landscape painting.   Alongside the works of famous Italian and foreign authors who have frequented the Dolomites mainly, from Ciardi to Compton, from Sartorelli to Pellis, from Wolf Ferrari to Chitarin from various private and public collections, visitors will also be able to (re) discover the alpine landscapes of lesser-known artists. In addition to the paintings, the exhibition presents a selection of publications, cartography, volumes, prints, advertising posters, testifying to the fortune and the growing appeal that the theme takes on in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Ambito Italiano – Dolomiti - 1910 - 1925 ca.
cromolitogra a, 88 x 116 cm inv. 05347 9Bc
Giovanni Salviati - Cime di Lavaredo


“the first tourists ever"

Josiah Gilbert – George Cheetham Churchill
The Dolomite Mountains Excursions Through Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola and Friuli in 1861, 1862 and 1863
first edition - London 1864

The Dolomite Mountains, published in 1864, is the first book dedicated to the Dolomite's exploration, written and illustrated by two British travelers, Josiah Gilbert and George Cheetham Churchill, which opens the exhibition path. With this publication, the Dolomites are definitely included in that alpine tour, which has romanticized and has contributed to making them fashionable beyond the English Channel. Armed with notepads and colors, Josiah and George explored rather unknown areas of the Alps together with their wives, who helped them in dealing with those incredibly introverted indigenous peoples. Their love for the Dolomites makes them learn one by one the numerous alpine valleys, which they frequent from 1861 to 1863. These two couples represent "the first tourists ever" of the modern Dolomites.

 Udine - Casa Cavazzini – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – courtesy Civita Tre Venezie

Giovanni Napoleone Pellis - Il Viatico in Montagna - 1921-22
oil on canvas - 178 x 336 cm

 
Giandomenico Romanelli
co-curator


 
Antonio Stoppani
Il Bel Paese. Conversazioni sulle bellezze naturalila geologia e la Geografia fisica d’Italia
first edition – Milano 1876

The book Il Bel Paese by clergyman, geologist, paleontologist, naturalist and patriot, Antonio Stoppani is also on display, published in 1876 it soon become a best seller intended to constitute the magna geography map of Italy. Divided into "evenings", that is, in narrations addressed in literary fiction to his grandchildren gathered in front of the fireplace, Stoppani invites us to become aware of the country's natural heritage. The book also highlights the role and potential of CAI, the Club Alpino Italiano officially founded 1863 by Quintino Sella, described as a sort of environmental sentinel ante litteram.

 Zagabria - Moderna Galerija - inv. MG-690 - courtesy Civita Tre Venezia

Monte Civetta
model

Edward Theodore Compton - Paesaggio delle Dolomiti - 1872-1882
oil on canvas – 149.6 x 93.2 cm

 

Franca Lugato
Co-curator

  
Edward Theodore Compton - Cortina 


 

“…Conegliano, with its strategic positioning, in the middle of the Prosecco hills and sentinel to the Dolomites, anticipates, with this large exhibition, important sporting events such as the 2026 Winter Olympics. The itinerary develops around the theme of the mountain, creating opportunities for further study, helping to discover how attention and love for the peaks were born with the first climbs, the interests for painting and advertising, the establishment of the first alpine clubs. The fascination for the mountains celebrated in the exhibition
are the meeting point and a common cultural base for the whole region.”
Fabio Chies
Mayor of Conegliano

 
Francesco Sartorelli - Ave Maria – 1890 ca.
oil on canvas


 
Napoleone Cozzi – Untitled – Prealpi Clautane – 1902
watercolor on paper – photographs – newspaper clippings

Napoleone Cozzi - 1867-1916 - is one of the first solo mountaineers in the Dolomites and pioneer of sport climbing in Trieste. On display are three of his notebooks which with delicate watercolors capture the high routes traveled during the explorations made with his so-called "flying team", two of which in 1898 towards the Julian Prealps and one in 1902 with the ascent of the Clautan Prealps, now known as the Friulian Dolomites. The notebooks allow us to relive these experiences, thanks also to the amusing and often ironic, captions that accompany them.


poster - su concessione del Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo – courtesy Civita Tre Venezie
Treviso - Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce - Polo Museale del Veneto


Sandro Bidasio Degli Imberti – aka Sabi
Dolomiti provincia di Belluno
1950 ca. - photomechanical reproduction - 35 x 25 cm, inv. 07805 162D

A selection of advertising posters of winter sports, from the first decades of the twentieth century from the Salce di Treviso collection enriches the exhibition, in particular thanks to the works of the Austrian-Italian Franz Lenhart focusing on the Dolomites and Cortina. They are perfect in the modernist style, in the typeset of the characters, in the decorative simplicity of the landscapes and in the lively chromatic range, they tell us about a young, happy and dynamic mountain.

The exhibition is promoted by the Comune di Conegliano and Civita Tre Venezie, with the participation of the Regione Veneto and the patronage of the Fondazione Cortina 2021, the collaboration of the CAI di Conegliano and the Societa Alpina delle Giulie di Trieste.  The catalogue with the essays and the texts by the curators and published by Marsilio Editori.