ItalyUpdate

HUNTING FOR FANTASTIC BEASTS

A novel way to approach works of art in Italian museums – especially with children – has been suggested by the history of art magazine “Finestre sull'Arte” (Windows on Art) produced in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Editors have compiled a review of paintings and frescoes in museums and galleries all over the Italian peninsula that feature strange creatures born of ancient mythology traditions.

In Rome, some examples include the painting of Orpheus by 16^th century artist Marcello Provenzale in the Borghese Gallery, where the legendary musician sits playing, surrounded by all kinds of animals, including a winged dragon, then the mysterious 5^th century BC Etruscan Wolf Man plate in the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia and the incredible ceiling of the Altovidi Room by Vasari in the Palazzo Venezia Museum, covered in grotesques of satrys and other strange creatures. This latter fresco has almost miraculously survived, first from fire that broke out in the palace in 1569 and later from Tiber flooding. In fact, it was detached from the ceiling when the original Altovidi Palace was dismantled during the construction of the Tiber embankments.

Info: finestresullarte.info/viaggi/animali-e-luoghi- fantastici-musei-italiani-lazio

SALUZZO FESTIVAL CHESS CHAMP PLAYS 30/ 1

One of the biggest draws at the Festa del Libro Antico e Medioevale (Festival of Ancient and Medieval Books) at Saluzzo (Cuneo, Piedmont) will certainly be a chess game starring 2018 Olympic Gold champion Marina Brunello against thirty competitors contemporarily on the 23 October 2022.

This year's International Fair of Ancient and Medioeval Book will run from the 21^st - 23^rd October as part of the Salone del Libro Internazionale (s) with a busy programme animated by jugglers, acrobats, jesters, dancers, falconers, typical games and medieval music.

Festival theme centres round women, taking inspiration from Petrarch's celebrated description of the fairer sex as “uno spirito celeste, un vivo sole” {celestial spirit, a vibrant sun}. Sessions for specialists and the curious on the revolution in printing techniques are to be held in the town's Historic Library while the Saluzzo Communal Cemetery, built in 1787, holds guided tours centred on “Stories of Dreams and Dreamers.”

Info: Tel. +39.0175.46710 www.salonelibro.it info@visitsaluzzo.it

ITALIAN BARMEN WORLDTOPS

Top places in World's Best Bars awards of 2022 have gone to Italian barmen, Giacomo Giannotti and Simone Caporale, who concoct their magical cocktails in Barcelona, in the celebrated bars “Il Paradiso” and “Sips” respectively.

While Giannotti scooped first place, Caporale's “Sips” got the “Highest Climber” nomination for leaping 34 places to number 3 in this year's classification.

The two displaced many years winner Connaught of London, owned by Italian Agostino Perrone, which still ranked however in the top ten.

The World's Best Bars is run by William Reed Ltd, the group behind “The World's 50 Best Restaurants”. Classifications are voted annually by 650 international drinks experts belonging to the World's 50 Best Bars Academy.

Info: www.worlds50bestbars.com

THE TIBER RUNNING DRY

As a result of the long spell of dry weather this spring and summer, the Tiber river, historic symbol of Ancient Rome, has diminished in volume to the extent that it has dropped a meter and a half lower than its average flow, as registered over the past 16 years. The tributaries that feed the river have been reduced to little more than trickling streams, transforming stretches of the river in the city centre to virtual marshland.

On average the Rome area records an average rainfall of 357 mm but only 137 mm of rain have fallen during this year's four month-long drought.

Looking down from the Bridge of the Angels at Castle Sant'Angelo at the weeds poking up from the shallows it seems impossible to believe that for centuries the city was subjected to flooding. The last great flood, when the Tiber burst its banks and covered the city centre in 2m of water, was in December 1870, just after the Unification of Italy.

Work on the Tiber embankments began in 1876 and involved the construction of 8 kms of 13m-high containing walls, finally completed fifty years later in 1926.

Photo: The Tiber at Castle Sant'Angelo September 2022 by M. Stenhouse

VENETO: AUTUMN MAGIC IN HISTORIC VILLAS

Six historic villas of Veneto open their doors between the 9^th October and 6^th November for “Foliage Month, the Magic Atmosphere of Autumn” when visitors can admire the beautiful autumnal colours of the trees and plants. The villas all belong to the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane (ADSI) (Historic Houses of Italy) and are open on different dates during “Foliage Month” with various programmes that include guided walks with botany and arboreal experts, culinary events and art associated with nature. Some of the visits will be accompanied personally by the estate owners.

The Villas involved in the programme are:

Villa Sagramoso Sacchetti of Verona, Borgo Feriani, Castello di Thiene, Villa Angarano (Bassano di Grappa), Villa Valmarana ai Nani (includes view of rooms frescoed by Tiepolo) and Villa da Schio (Castelgomberto) with its sculpture garden.

“Foliage 2022” also runs a photography and video competition

For full information on dates of openings: Tel. +39.349.639317

www.dimoreamichedelveneto.it

ARCHAEOLOGY AND WINE – A WINNING DUO

The Codice Citra Cooperative has recently financed the restoration and preservation of a rich collection of ancient grave goods belonging to the pre-Roman Frentani people in the hilly area near Chieti (Abruzzo). The Cardetola Necropolis at Crecchio was first excavated in 1844, unearthing a 1.47 m funerary stele with a rare inscription in the language of this little known people. Since then, the site has yielded 138 tombs dating between the 6^th and 3^rd century BC.

The Codice Citra Coop, composed of 300 families, represents Abruzzo's largest community of winegrowers. As a personal contribution to the cultural heritage of their area, members volunteered to help with recent excavation work involving three Tombs - nominated 17, 34 and 57, all of which have yielded a cache of objects that proved continuous trading links with the Magna Grecia, Taranto and Campania, as well as the Baltic and Africa.

Tomb 17 contained some 28 pieces of refined terracotta tableware. The owner of the tomb had been cremated, which was considered unusual practice for this area and at that time. He is believed to have been an athlete as his strigil (a tool used to massage the body and scrape it clean of sweat at the baths) was buried with him.

Tomb 34 belonged to a woman of wealth, buried with refined gold and silver jewellery.

Tomb 57 is considered particularly interesting. It contained a youth with a splendid bronze and gilded crown decorated with terracotta fruit.

The finds are to be added to the collection of the Museum of the Crecchio Ducal Castle, which also contains an important collection of Byzantine and Medieval antiquities.

Info: Nazionale Archeoclub Italia: Tel. +39.25967459 Museo: +39.0871.941392 www.citra.it

THE WHITE GHOSTS OF APULIA BECOME ART

The ancient olive trees, with their towering heads of silver-grey leaves, their gnarled trunks and twisted branches, were the pride of Apulia and much admired and photographed by tourists to the region. That was until some years ago when they were attacked by an implacable enemy – a bacteria called Xylella fastidiosa which dried up their vascular system, cutting off water and nourishment and turning them into twisted spectres. The disease spread like wildfire, killing off gigantic trees that were centuries old and a seemingly eternal feature of the landscape. An estimated 20 million trees were affected.

Fortunately, scientists eventually found a remedy by grafting on cultivars such as “Favoloso” and “Leccino” which have proved resistant to the disease. Trees which couldn't be saved are being replaced, with the help of EU funding, by new immune varieties.

Many however could not be saved. A local non-profit association called EXIBART, headed by photographer Ulderico Tramacere, decided to give them a second life as Land Art objects. In 2020 Tramacere created the Field of Giants, a 2 ½ acre area near Nardò (Lecce) of spectral olive groves, whitewashed in lime disinfectant. These old warriors make natural sculptures and are destined to become a new tourist attraction.

Photo by EXIBART

Info: www.exibart.com

PORDENONE: INNOVATION, CULTURE and TRADITION

Norwegian pianist and orchestra conductor, Lief Ove Andsnes, leads the centenary inaugural concert at Pordenone's Teatro Verdi on the 26^th September 2022. The ultra modern theatre and concert hall has a long and chequered history. First opened in 1922 as the Teatro Licinio, it has been rebuilt several times over the past century as a theatre and then a cinema, always, however, conserving a special place in the heart of the citizens. The city's special attention towards the arts is also blazoned on the external wall of the theatre decorated with white panels carved with poems by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Sylvia Plath.

Pordenone (Friuli Venezia-Giulia) is also known for its long tradition of decorated walls dating back to the 16^th century, traces of which remain on the historic buildings that line the old Corso in the historic centre. The tradition continues to be kept alive today with murals created by contemporary artists in the more modern part of the city, such as the gigantic 200sqm representation by Marta Lorenzon of an actress touching up her makeup “Behind the Scenes” that covers the walls of the old Fish Market (Piazza Pescheria) at the back of the Teatro Verdi.

The month of September also focussed on the printed press with the 16^th edition of the event “Ascoltare, Leggere, Crescere” (Listen, Read, Grow), which also marked the centenary of “Il Popolo,” the weekly newspaper published by the diocese of Pordenone.

M Stenhouse

Info: www.teatroverdipordenone.it www.ilpopolopordenone.it

GETTY RETURNS ORPHEUS and the SIRENS

Another triumph for Italy's Ministry of Culture – the recent return of the 5^th century BC Greek sculpture group of “Orpheus and the Sirens,” purchased illegally by the Getty Museum from a Swiss dealer in 1976.

The group, an Ancient Greek masterpiece dated to the 4^th century BC, was discovered during an illicit dig in the area of Taranto (Puglia) and smuggled into Switzerland where it was offered to the Getty Museum for sale. The group is almost life size and features a seated male figure originally holding a lyre and two somewhat hefty mermaids with birds' bodies in their traditional form as spirits of the World of the Dead.

The Getty Museum, through its legal office, has recognized that the sculptures had been exported illegally out of Italy. The group was returned to Rome on the 17^th September 2022 and is temporarily on view in the new Museo dell'Arte Salvata (Museum of Rescued Art) inside the Baths of Diocletian complex until the 15^th October 2022, when it will be returned to its original home in Taranto.

The Getty is actively collaborating with the Italian government regarding the identification and restitution of antiquities of doubtful provenance in its collection. The Museum, however, is reluctant to part with the magnificent “Victorious Youth”, one of the stars of its collection, which was fished out of the Adriatic sea by fishermen in 1964. Italy has been demanding its return for many years. The Getty Museum, however, claims that the sculpture, attributed to Lysippos, was found in international waters and therefore does not legally belong to Italy.

M. STENHOUSE

Info: www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it

GUBBIO'S GRAND MEDIEVAL FEST

The annual Festival del Medioevo (Medieval Festival) is off an running in Gubbio (Umbria) between the 21^st - 25^th September 2022.

The popular event – a “must” for history fans as well as tourists visiting this beautifully preserved medieval city in Umbria – was launched eight years ago and has grown from strength to strength ever since, thanks to its imaginative programmes and scope that ranges from talks by celebrated international experts to fun family shows and happenings.

Each year, the Festival adopts a particular theme which is explored by panels of eminent speakers in a series of lectures, accompanied by exhibitions of traditional crafts, a “Medieval Market”, dance spectacles and other performances, as well as an exclusive fair of Medieval-themed books.

The title of the 2022 Festival is “Dinastie, Famiglie e Potere” (Dynasties, Families and Power) and the theme will be explored in 90 lectures by international experts on the Middle Ages. Juicy themes range from Lucrezia Borgia, the Icelandic Sagas, Kievan Rus (the Slavic state encompassing eastern and northern Europe in the 9^th century), papal nepotism, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, the Medici, as well as Medieval art.

Events with catchy titles are sure to attract, like “Shakespeare Juke Box” featuring philosopher actor Cesare Catà, “The World of Game of Thrones” and the session on Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings°.

The leading figure chosen this year to represent the spirit of the age is the powerful war lord Federico da Montefeltro, who was born in Gubbio and whose 600^th centenary falls this year. Federico is well known to all of us through his celebrated profile portrait by Piero della Francesco. Not only a war leader, but also a humanist, patron of the arts and founder of the most celebrated library of the period, so much so that he was referred to as “the Light of Italy.”

This year's version of the Festival is dedicated to the celebrated historian Chiara Frugoni, who died this spring. She will be commemorated in the inaugural day by her lifelong friend and writer Virtus Zallot.

M.Stenhouse

Info: www.festivaldelmedioevo.it as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter