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goporta
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Added
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7/27/07 8:25 AM
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Last Updated
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7/27/07 8:25 AM
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Accademia Gallery "Meraviglie sonore - Strumenti musicali" Exhibition
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Accademia Exhibition
Florence, Italy The exhibition, Meraviglie sonore. Strumenti musicali del barocco italiano. Marvels of Sound and Beauty. Italian Baroque Musical Instruments, opened today at the Galleria dell’Accademia. The exhibition is promoted by the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, by the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, the Galleria dell’Accademia and Firenze Musei and by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
To delight the eye with shapes and colors there are marvelous paintings. A canvas by Cesare Dandini of Apollo holding a lyre decorated with mythological symbols, a painting by Antiveduto Grammatica from the Gonzaga collection, with a Saint Cecilia and angels and a wealth of musical instruments including a harp that is as magnificently decorated as a jewel, and the spectacular triptych by Evaristo Baschenis painted for the Agliardis, a noble family from Bergamo. And, mainly, there are the instruments, each of which is a jewel – whether made of rare or precious materials, or decorated with lavish carvings and inlays, or shaped like animals or mythological creatures.
In the first room the visitor is greeted by a spinet built by the Milanese harpsichord maker, Annibale de’ Rossi in 1577, on exceptional loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum of London: it is clad with nearly 2,000 gems and semiprecious stones, emeralds, rubies, lapis lazuli, turquoises, amethysts and pearls. Facing the spinet are three lavishly decorated harpsichords, one had belonged to the Barberini family; the one that had belong to the Ottobonis was painted in the workshop of Luca Giordano. The fourth room opens with two incredible violins: the Sunrise made by Antonio Stradivari at Cremona in 1677 with delicate floral black floral inlays on the ribs and the other, made by Domenico Galli in 1687 for Francesco II d’Este (Modena, Galleria Estense) with floral, animal and mythological motifs carved into every inch of the surface. These are followed by instruments with ivory, mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell inlays, that create lively plays of color and magnificent black-and-white, positive-negative contrasts.
To astound the eye the second room showcases zoomorphic and theatrical instruments made from the late 16th century on to “convince” audiences that the sounds they heard came from dragons or serpents or from chitarroni shaped liked Apollo’s lyre. The treasures include the tenor cornett in the shape of a serpent with a dragon head that opens its jaws with incredible realism from the Musée de la Musique in Paris, and the dolphin-shaped hunting horn with a dragon head carved entirely from ivory from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden.
The greatest surprises are in the third room that features instruments made entirely of marble. One is a harpsichord from the Galleria Estense. The entire instrument was carved from white Carrara marble and is decorated with such delicate bas-relief carvings as to seem like embroidery, and with such a thin soundboard that light can shine through it and make it seem as translucent as alabaster.
An exhibition of musical instruments would certainly not be complete without the pleasures of sound: throughout the duration of the exhibition there will be music in the Galleria, staged in cooperation with the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini of Florence. There will be music in the exhibition rooms performed on the harpsichords on display and music in the David Tribune, where internationally renowned musicians will play instruments from the permanent collection and some of those featured in the exhibition. In other sections of the Galleria, young musicians will play pieces from the Italian Baroque repertory for which the instruments were actually made, every Tuesday evening from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. through 4 November.
Finally, there will be music at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, at the Galleria Estense in Modena, and the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Roma, that is, institutions which loaned us some of the most beautiful objects on display and generously organized musical programs dedicated to this exhibition.
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