Amedeo Modigliani in Worldwide Museums: 18. Pinacoteca di Brera

 

 

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The 18th place I would like to introduce for this week is The Pinacoteca di Brera.

The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery in Milan, Italy. Housing some of the most important collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th centuries, it is an outgrowth of the cultural program of the Brera Academy, which shares the site in the Palazzo Brera.

The convent on the site passed to the Jesuits in 1572 and was then radically rebuilt by Francesco Maria Richini. When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773, the palazzo remained the seat of the astronomical Observatory and the Braidense National Library, founded by the Jesuits. The buildings were extended to the design by Giuseppe Piermarini, who was appointed professor of the Academy when it was formally founded in 1776, with Giuseppe Parini as dean. Piermarini taught at the Academy for 20 years, and under Parini's successors, Carlo Bianconi and Giuseppe Bossi, the Academy acquired the first paintings of its Pinacoteca.

In 1882, the Paintings Gallery was separated from the Academy and Giuseppe Bertini was appointed as its first director. In 1903, the Pinacoteca opened 19 new rooms to display over a hundred newly acquired works, such as frescoes by Donato Bramante.

In 1939, during World War II, Pinacoteca's works were secured by Fernanda Wittgens, while the building was severely damaged in the bombings in 1943. In February 1946, The Pinacoteca began its slow resurrection from the ruins, thanks to the funding from some historic Milanese families, including the Bernocchi family, and to the work of Piero Portaluppi, Gualtiero Galmanini and Fernanda Wittgens.

The works of Modigliani currently in the possession of The Pinacoteca di Brera are as follows.

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“Seungyong Chang’s Culture and Art Stories” (December 31, 2022)

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The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 54. Woman's Head (1915)

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 54th work to introduce for this week is “Woman's Head” in 1915.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 46 x 38 cm. It is currently possessed by Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Italy.

Pinacoteca di Brera

This portrait has a sculptural aspect preferred by Modigliani when treating the nose and the line leading up to the eyebrows. However, the face of the woman with such a mask feel was treated very rounded, which makes the woman's look smoother. 

The white traces on the blue background are presumably made by Modigliani with his fingers.  In addition, the blue color added to the woman's body has the effect of making the woman's bronzed complexion stand out more. 

While the Cubist style traces still remain in the woman’s face, the rounded woman's face also can be seen in this work, which might be one of the sorts of style practice or experiment that Modigliani tried in the process of going to the more rounded face style in the late 1916.

Unlike many other works, the unique point in this work is that one ear of the woman is not completely drawn.

This work, like some of his paintings, has holes in four corners, two of which were filled during the restoration.

This work was displayed at the Genova Exhibit of the Modigliani works in 2017, which was controversial by the forgery scandal, and the image of this work was damaged by the press who announced that the fake of this work was present in the Exhibit.

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 35. Fat Child (1915)

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 35th work to introduce for this week is “Fat Child (1915)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 45.5 x 37.5 cm.

It is currently owned by the Palazzo Brera in Milan, Italy.

In this work, the signature “Modigliani” is written in bottom left and the title 

“L’Enfant/gras” is written in top left and the text “LOUISE” is next to the ear. Sometimes, Modigliani wrote the title on his work to identify the model or convey the message.

Another example is Modigliani's friend, Utrillo, who liked to use the word "vin" as a symbol of the old houses he painted. Utrillo was also the son of Suzanne Valadon, who was a painter as well as a model of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. Picasso and Braque also used certain words in their cubist works as official elements of their works.

Although Modigliani abandoned the sculpture in 1914, it seems to be the regrets about the sculpture that there are many traces of sculptural feeling in his works for the rest of his life.

The almost perfect oval face of the model in this work is reminiscent of the "Portrait of Mademoiselle Pogany" created by Constantin Brâncuși in 1912, who was a teacher of Modigliani as well as influential to him.

Portrait of Mademoiselle Pogany, Constantin Brancusi (1912) 

This is a work that shows almost all the typical styles of Modigliani, such as almond-shaped empty eyes without pupils and elongated neck.

In addition, the ear is only drawn and the head is larger on the right side, and the neck and face are slightly tilted to the right, therefore the model is biased to the right. With the intention of offsetting this model's bias, Modigliani drew her nose and mouth biased to the left, positioning the eye on the left a little higher, and with his signature, he put much more text than usual works to the left to balance the work.

Also, in the background, he used additional curve with straight lines in the background compared to his usual style of dividing the background geometrically using straight lines, with the intention of emphasizing the shape of the unusually rounded oval face.

Therefore, we can get a glimpse of Modigliani's intricateness of drawing the whole composition in advance, when drawing a work.

This work also has holes in the 4 corners, and 2 of them were covered by restoration.

As commented in the portraits of Hastings, the place where Modigliani and Hastings first met was “Chez Rosalie” restaurant, run by Rosalie Tobia, who provided food to the poor Modigliani for free, and Modigliani drew paintings in return.

However, Rosalie, who didn't know art well, did not recognize the value of Modigliani’s paintings. Therefore, many works have been damaged due to her neglected management, such as nailing them on the toilet.

The holes in the corners of this work also might be such nail holes from the time of drawing.

Then, this work also might be one of Modigliani's paintings for Rosalie in return for a free meal.

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Mr. Eugenio Lanzetta, Founder of Amalart in Milan, Italy, visited Modigliani Institute Korea yesterday

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Yesterday, Mr. Eugenio Lanzetta, founder of Amalart in Milan, Italy, the partner of the Modigliani Institute Korea for the Modigliani project, visited Korea to discuss the 100th anniversary of the death of Modigliani this year.

Amalart is organizing various events related to Modigliani around the world, including Italy. In particular, they are holding a digital art exhibition of Modigliani’s works along with displaying a wide range of Modigliani’s materials such as documents through the event “Modigliani: Les Femmes”.

Mr. Lanzetta and I met at the Incheon airport early in the morning and went to the office in Seoul, where the Modigliani Institute Korea is located.

Over the next few hours, we had a meeting on a variety of topics related to the Modigliani project.

The project activities for the 100th anniversary of Modigliani's death this year, proposed by the Modigliani Institute Korea to Amalart are as follows.

1. Hold the digital art exhibition related to Modigliani’s works held in Italy

2. Conduct an art tour for Modigliani following his life from birth to death

3. Launch the establishment of Modigliani Museum

4. Launch a film production for Modigliani

I am so glad that my devoted endeavors for Modigliani with my infinite passion and love for many years bore fruit.

I welcome all of you who want to join in such significant and meaningful 100th anniversary of Modigliani.

Thank you.

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK: 10. CARAVAGGIO

Name: Caravaggio

Born: 29 September 1571, Milan, Italy

Died: 18 July 1610, Porto Ercole, Italy

Active Years: 1593-1610

Nationality: Italian

Art Movement: Baroque

Field: Painting

Influenced by: Giorgione, Titian

Influenced on: Gustave Courbet, Artemisia Gentileschi, Diego Velazquez, Peter Paul Rubens, Johannes Vermeer, Georges de la Tour, Rembrandt, Eugene Delacroix, Edouard Manet, Jacques-Louis David

Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily from the early 1590s to 1610. 

His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting. Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as tenebrism. He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening shadows and transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light. 

Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture and death. He worked rapidly, with live models, preferring to forgo drawings and work directly onto the canvas. 

His influence on the new Baroque style that emerged from Mannerism was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques.”

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RELATED ARTISTS

Giorgione

Titian

Gustave Courbet

Artemisia Gentileschi

Diego Velazquez

Peter Paul Rubens

Johannes Vermeer

Georges de la Tour

Rembrandt

Eugene Delacroix

Edouard Manet

Jacques-Louis David

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Currently, “J art”, an internet mall of “Art Collage JANG” is selling artprints of worldwide famous artists.

In relation with this sale, I will introduce one by one every week, whose artprints are on the sale list, by following categories.

1. Artist’s Bio: Introduce brief bio of selected artist

2. Famous Works: Move to the corresponding artprints in J art by clicking

3. All Works List: Move to all works of selected artist in J art by clicking

4. Related Artists: Move to the works of the artists in J art, who are related to the selected artist.

5. All Artists List: Move to the list of all artists selling artprints in J art

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