If you thought it was in the Bonaparte Palace on Piazza Venezia in Rome once resided the famous French emperor and conqueror, you were wrong. This building from the middle of the 17th century was bought for 27.000 gold pieces only in 1818, when her son was already a prisoner on Saint Helena, by Maria Leticia Ramolino - mother of Napoleon Bonaparte. She lived there until her death in 1836, and it is said that from the balcony she liked to watch the passing of carriages on what was then Saint Mark's Square, now Piazza Venezia.
Since 1972, the Bonaparte Palace has been an exhibition space, owned by Generali Insurance. Until March 8 next year, it hosts a large retrospective exhibition of Alphonse Mucha, Czech painter, one of the greatest artists of the period Art Nouveau.
Alfons Muha was born in Ivančice in Moravia, near Brno. As a child, he sang in the church choir and it was there that he was attracted to church art. He decided to become a painter even though his father intended to direct him towards a career as a clerk. He studied painting in Munich, and then he moved to Paris and continued his studies at the Académie Julien. During his stay in Paris, in 1894, he made a poster-lithograph, as an advertisement for Sarah Bernard. This lavishly stylized poster brought him fame and many commissions. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, Mucha designed a pavilion Of Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1906 to 1910 he stayed in the USA, from where he returned to live in Prague. At the beginning of the Second World War, he was arrested and interrogated by the German occupiers. He died a few days later, on July 14, 1939.
The exhibition presents the famous work of the Czech artist, which also includes advertising posters for some brands that are still present today, such as "Nestle" and "Moet & Chandon". His theater posters are also famous Gismonda, Lorenzaccio, Medea, Toska, Hamlet ...
Muha is famous as a great pan-Slavic patriot Slavic epic, a cycle of 20 large paintings depicting scenes from Czech and other history and mythology Slavic people. Among them are Coronation of the Serbian Emperor Dušan as the ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire i The defense of Sighet against the Turks under the leadership of Nikola Zrinski which he dedicated to the Croats.
In 1928, Muha donated all the paintings from this cycle to Prague. His only condition was that the city build a special pavilion where the cycle will be exhibited. They are now in the castle of Moravski Krumlov.
In the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, a massive neoclassical building from 1883, the Quadrinale of Contemporary Art, organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Italy every four years in Rome, is underway. Quadrinale was founded in 1927 by Efisio Opo, artist, writer and Member of Parliament. This year, in addition to the works representing the contemporary Italian art scene, which are exhibited on the ground floor, an exhibition dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Second Roman Quadrangle, which was opened by Benito Mussolini himself on February 4, 1935, was organized on the first floor.
photo: r. shepherdSelf-portrait, Milena Pavlović Barili
Among those works is a self-portrait of our (and theirs) Milena Pavlović Barila.
There is also a work by the famous painter Gino Severini, who won the 1st prize and 100.000 lira. The picture shows his prematurely deceased son Gino, who, leaving this world, leaves behind his toys.
