Costume Gallery in Palazzo Pitti

Author: Gayane Simonyan

The Costume Gallery in Palazzo Pitti in Florence displays the exhibitions of the collections of historical accessories and clothes that had previously been stored in the warehouses of the palace.

The collections cover the period from the 18th century to the present-day but there are also rare examples of the 16th century.

Costume Gallery collections include around ninety theatre costumes as well belonging to the cornerstone of the history of Italian show business, Sartoria Tirelli, which were given to the museum together with a huge number of historical clothes by Umberto Tirelli.

The exhibition now starts with Rosa Genoni who was born in 1887 in Tirano, Italy, and by the time she was eighteen, was involved in socialist workers’ clubs. She was the first person in the history of Fashion to support the concept of “Made in Italy”. Taking Italian Renaissance art as her inspiration for both the structure of her creations and textile decorations, she was deeply committed to improving the position of women in the workplace, and collaborated with the Società Umanitaria vocational school for girls as teacher and director, and was the first teacher in the History of Italian Costume. The dresses Rosa presented at the International Exhibition in Milan in 1906, where inspired by Botticelli, Pisanello, Raffaello, Mantegna and Ghirlandaio and fully embodied her ideas.

 

She also wrote the first book in the history of Fashion. This section features two of her masterpieces, the Court Cape based on a watercolor by Pisanello, and the ball dress inspired by Botticelli’s Primavera.

The next is Patty Pravo born in Venice, Italy in 1948 who was an Italian pop singer whose career spanned for more than four decades.

“Patty Pravo doesn’t actually exist, she is an abstraction, an essence, a wicked and angelic alien flower that blossomed in the wild garden of music” said Gino Castaldo, an Italian journalist and a critic of music.

The list is continued by Anna Piaggi born in Milan in 1931. She was a fashion journalist, author and collector; an icon of eccentric extravagant and provocative style, but also an elegant woman famous for having invented vintage long before it became fashionable.

Maria Cumani Quasimodo- wife, life-companion and muse of the author and poet Salvatore Quasimodo- was born in Milan on 20 May, 1908. The dresses she wore as a dancer and actress, and sometimes mixing the stage with real life, have been ennobled by their unique historical value. These dresses are one of the main decorations of the exhibition.

In the next hall of the gallery, you can find any type of hat from the most extraordinary to the most simple, from the very old to the very modern. An example is a Capello/ hat, 1993 Gianfranco Ferre.

The next hall is decorated by the costumes of Lietta Cavalli who holds a very unique place in the world of fashion and who has always considered fashion as the means of implementing her artistic work since she was interested in everything textile that can cover, decorate and transform the body. Yarns are her medium for producing art and clothing and she is using the “wrong” side of knitted fabrics for clothing.

 

Flora Wiechmann Savioli born in Florence in 1917 in a large family. From 50th to 1968 Flora devoted her creative talents to making jewellery, setting quartz and semiprecious stones in silver, steel, iron and brass. Her inspiration was always husband and life companion, Leonardo Savioli.

The next is Angela Caputi who is Florentine by adoption and who presented her first collection in 1975. Her creations, untouched by industrial process, are important examples of Made in Italy craftsmanship. Materials she used include but are not limited in lightweight and pliable synthetic resins.

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Palazzo Pitti is hosting Masaaki Miyasako' s exhibition

Author: Gayane Simonyan

In the halls of the Gallery of Modern Arts in Palazzo Pitti, Florence, from May 20 to June 29, 2014, the Japanese artist Masaaki-Miyasako is showing his works to the public in the form of the exhibition Tourbillon, edited by Junji Ito.

The exhibition displays 30 works, mostly large or composite panels from the greatest museums in Japan and also from private collections and from the last production of the artist.

Born in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture in 1951, Masaaki Miyasako is now widely active as a painter and a professor at graduate school of Tokyo National University of Arts.

Junji Ito, art Critic and curator of the Masaaki-Miyasako International Exhibition, believes that the greatest meaning in planning this exhibition of the works of Masaaki-Miyasako, which has traveled to Budapest, Lisbon and now finally Florence, and introducing this artist to Europe, lies in transmitting major questions remaining for modern Japan in Europe- the springhead for raising such questions- through the work of Masaaki-Miyasako.

By this he means firstly that Masaaki-Miyasako’ s complex and diverse techniques are something that multilaterally spreads understanding of one-dimensional Japanese art that has been viewed only in terms of color and differences in perspective over since the Impressionist School; and secondly that Miyasako’ s scientific mind, which endeavors to structurally understand relationship between image representations and human emotions is evidence of the changes and innovations brought forward in Japanese art by the concept of art that has been imported from the west since the 19th century.

In other words the world of Miyasako’ s works is a place where currently existing values give innovation to two understandings of Japanese artwork in Japan and the West for the first time in over a century since the emergence of Japonism in the West.

Masaaki-Miyasako- an artist who is also a leader in the revival and innovation of traditions, and who is acknowledged by one and all as a worthy heir to the art of Japanese painting- now has an opportunity with this exhibition to introduce his works in Europe, where the cultural pinnacle of exchange between Japan and Europe has been realized and expanded through the aesthetic development of Japonism.

 

According to Junji Ito, this is not only something that will provide clear answers for the modern day realization of issues raised during the era spanning the late 19th and 20th centuries but also proof that Europeans’ recognition from an international perspective of the potential for Japanese art was in fact correct.

This exhibition is also meant to show that it is possible to arrive at Western art concepts from Japanese cultural methodology while at the same time providing dialectical evidence of this, and so Miyasako’ s world is referred to as “pure impressionism”.

 

In Masaaki-Miyasako’s words. in Japan, there exists an excellent culture of painting, sculpture and industrial arts that have been backed with traditional skills. Europe has been deeply impressed by aspects of Japanese culture including ukiyoe, manga and anime, yet other aspects of Japanese culture have not reached Europe at all.

A spiritual culture that reaches the heart has been represented by paintings using a classical technique of coloring from the reverse side, known as "urazaisiki," nihonga (Japanese-style painting), forming new space-time and universe elements while retaining traditional aspects, wrapping these around a spiral.

“I hope I can share the joy of this experience with the people of Italy,” said Miyasako.

"urazaisiki" technique

This year he is scheduled to have 2 solo exhibitions in national museums in Europe: a challenge that started from Russia and Asian areas and is now developing throughout Europe.

Miyasako' work, internationally regarded as contemporary art, stately proceeds to global stage of contemporary art scene.

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Palazzo Pitti parla giapponese e invita a conoscere il Paese del sol levante. In mostra l’arte e la cultura del Giappone nell’incontro con l’Occidente

Linee, colori e suggestioni racchiuse in 500 opere che raccontano la ‘terra di incanti’ dell’Estremo Oriente, lungo un percorso di mille e 200 metri di superficie espositiva. Così a Firenze, a Palazzo Pitti dal 3 aprile al primo luglio 2012, si celebra il Giappone. Nella reggia fiorentina che nel 1585 ospitò i primi ambasciatori giapponesi mai arrivati in Italia, la manifestazione ‘Giappone, terra d’incanti’, suddivisa in tre mostre dai titoli differenti, illustra l’arte e la cultura nipponica. Vediamo di seguito più nel dettaglio le tre parti dell’esposizione.

Di Linea e di Colore. Il Giappone, le sue arti e l'incontro con l'Occidente

Al piano terreno di Palazzo Pitti, nell’antico quartiere estivo dei granduchi, oggi Museo degli Argenti, le luci sono puntate sull’arte giapponese dal XIV al XIX secolo, epoca in cui il Giappone era il paese degli shogun e dei samurai. Questa parte della manifestazione espone raffinate realizzazioni artistiche e artigianali, dalle armi alle armature dei noti guerrieri, ai dipinti realizzati su paraventi dorati o su rotoli, destinati ai templi buddhisti e shintoisti o alle abitazioni. Non mancano opere che gli shogun dedicarono alla celebre Cerimonia del tè, kimono dagli straordinari tessuti, maschere e costumi variopinti per il teatro.

Alcune sale sono dedicate l'Ukiyo, il ‘mondo fluttuante’, una cultura parallela legata ai mercanti del periodo Edo (1615-1868), amatori della bellezza e dell’eleganza che predilessero artisti come il grande Hokusai, presente in mostra con lo straordinario capolavoro ‘Cinque dame’, rotolo verticale conservato nel Museo Hosomi di Kyoto.

Una parte di questa mostra è inoltre riservata all'incontro tra la cultura giapponese e quella europea e italiana, attraverso l'esposizione di manufatti giapponesi di tipo Nanban, che  letteralmente significa ‘barbari del Sud’, così come i giapponesi definivano gli europei tra il XVI e il XVII secolo.

L'eleganza della memoria. Le arti decorative nel moderno Giappone

La Sala Bianca, in Galleria Palatina al primo piano di Palazzo Pitti, ospita invece opere dei più famosi artisti giapponesi del Novecento, in particolare della seconda metà del secolo, quasi tutti nominati dal governo giapponese ‘tesori nazionali viventi’, il riconoscimento che fin dal 1950 viene assegnato per preservare tecniche e abilità artistiche.

Innovativi per concezione e per design, i lavori e i manufatti esposti esprimono stretti legami con la tradizione artistica classica del Giappone, sia per quanto riguarda le tecniche che i materiali: splendidi kimono, eleganti contenitori rivestiti della celeberrima lacca giapponese, ceramiche di elevata qualità, metalli dalle eleganti patine, notevoli e originali intrecci di bambù.

Giapponismo. Suggestioni dell’Estremo Oriente dai Macchiaioli agli anni Trenta

La terza mostra, dal suggestivo titolo ‘giapponismo’ si snoda nei locali della Galleria d’arte moderna e illustra la profonda influenza che la cultura nipponica ebbe sull’arte italiana tra la metà dell’Ottocento e i primi decenni del Novecento. Il Giappone era infatti rimasto isolato dal resto del mondo per oltre due secoli, aprendosi soltanto verso il 1860.

Da allora, grazie alla presenza di padiglioni giapponesi alle Esposizioni universali e alla permanenza di europei e statunitensi nel Paese del sol levante, l’interesse degli occidentali per le arti e la cultura del Giappone crebbe e si diffuse velocemente, diventando in certi casi una sorta di mania. Pensiamo per esempio all’arredamento, all’oggettistica e all’artigianato, dai ventagli ai kimono, ai paraventi. E, in campo strettamente artistico e pittorico, alle xilografie policrome di maestri come Utamaro, Hokusai e Hiroshige, ai quali si ispirarono anche i grandi delle avanguardie europee come Whistler, Manet, Degas, Vang Gogh, Gauguin e Monet.

Molti importanti artisti italiani accolsero e coltivarono il ‘giapponismo’, che influenzò musicisti come Puccini e Mascagni e pittori quali De Nittis, i macchiaioli toscani Fattori, Signorini e D'Ancona e altri esponenti dell’arte italiana di tutte le regioni: Tranquillo Cremona, Vittore Grubicy, De Pisis, Cambellotti, Michetti, Balla, Boldini, Cavaglieri. Non ultime, le maggiori manifatture del tempo, come la Richard Ginori, le vetrerie di Murano e le ceramiche di Galileo Chini. In mostra sono presenti opere di tutti questi artisti, affiancati da preziosi oggetti giapponesi. Un confronto e un incontro da non perdere.

Titolo della manifestazione: Giappone, Terra di incanti

Luogo: Palazzo Pitti, piazza dei Pitti, Firenze

Periodo: dal 3 aprile al 1° luglio 2012

Orario: Galleria Palatina e Galleria d’arte moderna, martedì – domenica: 8.15 – 18.50, chiuso il  lunedì

Museo degli Argenti, lunedì – domenica: aprile e maggio 8.15 – 18.00;  giugno e luglio  8.15 – 18.50, chiuso primo e ultimo lunedì del mese

Prezzo: Biglietto della mostra, che consente l’ingresso anche alle collezioni stabili dei musei di Palazzo Pitti che l’accolgono, oltre al Giardino di Boboli, con validità 3 giorni

intero: € 18.00

ridotto: € 9.00 (per i cittadini dell’U.E. tra i 18 ed i 25 anni)

gratuità per i cittadini dell’U.E. sotto i 18 e sopra i 65 anni

Info e prenotazioni: Firenze Musei 055.290383 -  firenzemusei@operalaboratori.com - www.unannoadarte.it