STORIES FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

Authors on display

ADRIANA BISI FABBRI ANSELMO BUCCI CORRADO CAGLI CAGNACCIO DI SAN PIETRO FELICE CASORATI MARIA CHIAROMONTE FORNARI SILVIO CONSADORI JOSEF DOBROWSKY GERARDO DOTTORI LEONARDO DUDREVILLE ANGELO LANDI UMBERTO LILLONI GIAN EMILIO MALERBA PIERO MARUSSIG CESARE MONTI KOLOMAN MOSER UBALDO OPPI GIUSEPPE RENDA EMILIO RIZZI MARIO SIRONI ARDENGO SOFFICI ATANASIO SOLDATI MARIO TOZZI

The exhibition, curated by Federica Bolpagni, Lisa Cervigni, and Anna Lisa Ghirardi, marks the beginning of a broader project to enhance private collections in Brescia, providing a unique opportunity to approach the vision of an unpublished heritage, usually not accessible to the public, through exhibitions specifically dedicated to it.

The journey starts with the atmospheres dominated by the typical "splendor" of the Belle Époque, before moving on to scenarios undermined by the "uncertainties" of the post-war periods, whose outcomes contributed to dampening the initial enthusiasms.

Belonging to the first phase is the room dedicated to music, inside which the Viennese Piano M. Schott, belonging to the composer from Salò Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925), is the focal point around which revolve the paintings by Angelo Landi (Portrait of Luciana Pantaleo, Violinist and Duet at the piano), the Woman with mandolin by Cesare Monti, and the Violinist by Emilio Rizzi. Anselmo Bucci's works on display include the Study for "Il violoncellista Crepax" - portraying the father of the cartoonist Guido Crepax and the record producer Franco - and Odeon - one of the most significant works by the author, depicting himself with friends, including the painter Leonardo Dudreville and the sculptor Enrico Mazzolani, at an ideal show at the Odéon theater in Paris.

Throughout the exhibition, conducted with a dual chronological and thematic criterion, the splendor and magnificence of the period are also embodied by the female figures of Gian Emilio Malerba (The Wait), Giuseppe Renda (Ondina, one of the two sculptures on display along with Target by Maria Chiaramonte Fornari), again Bucci (Juliette) and Landi (Portrait of a lady in pink), Josef Dobrowsky with Nude or Koloman Moser, Austrian, one of the founders along with Gustav Klimt of the Viennese Secession, whose Study for Venus in the cave is one of the preliminary sketches of the masterpiece preserved at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.
The story of some of the most intense decades of Italian history continues with confidence in progress and the glorification of war typical of the period. Bright examples are Biplane and Trench on the lake by Landi, St. (Warrior) by Adriana Bisi Fabbri, and the Hero's Funeral by Bucci.

Linked to the Futurist Avant-garde are instead Composition by Ardengo Soffici and At the café, in which Leonardo Dudreville portrays the members of the group. Ellipse of a firefly by Gerardo Dottori is instead attributable to the Second Futurism.
In the works between the twenties and thirties, there is a trace of overcoming the First World War and the desired "Return to Order" that followed, of which the Novecento Group - represented in the exhibition by six of its seven founders - was one of the first and major supporters. There are works by Mario Sironi, Leonardo Dudreville, Anselmo Bucci, Gian Emilio Malerba (Pegli), Pietro Marussig (Still Life), and Ubaldo Oppi (Nude at the window).
The Novecento influence is also felt in other authors: some intertwine their exhibition path with the history of Italian Novecento - like Mario Tozzi, Felice Casorati, and Cesare Monti - others collect its influence, like Silvio Consadori and the Magical Realism of Cagnaccio di San Pietro (Figure of a girl) and Monti (Figure). The still life genre is represented by the works of Atanasio Soldati, Cagnaccio di San Pietro, Marussig, and Mario Tozzi.
The thirties and forties marked by the advent of Fascism are narrated through the works of artists either despised or, conversely, supported by the Regime. Among these are five cards by Sironi, including the emblematic Large study for the female figure with book and musket and the Study for horse and composition of the fresco Dux in the Shrine of the Mother House of War Mutilated in Rome. Also from the same years is Second Chronicle of the time (fragment) by Corrado Cagli, part of the Cycle Chronicles of the time, created as decoration for the Rotunda Room for the 2nd Quadrennial of 1935.
An emblem of all the uncertainties enclosed in the title, the American Gift by Bucci, with its colorful American milk cans painted against the backdrop of a desolate and bombed Milan, ironically closes the entire exhibition.

Throughout the exhibition, alongside the narrative through images of the great events of national history, intertwine life stories, anecdotes, and curiosities about authors, places, and subjects portrayed, emerged during the studies conducted for the exhibition and for the first time told to the general public thanks to the panels that complete the visit path.