Exhibition
The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Vatican Museums, with the patronage of the Archdiocese of Milan and the contribution of Credito Valtellinese, presents a nucleus of sacred works by Gaetano Previati (1852-1920), master of Italian divisionism.
The exhibition itinerary opens with The Way to Calvary, a work that recently became part of the collections of the Museo Diocesano by bequest, which is accompanied by a second autograph version of the same subject, coming from the Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona Foundation.
Alongside this first nucleus, the entire Via Crucis created between 1901 and 1902, by the Collection of Contemporary Art of the Vatican Museums, recently restored, in addition to the 14 photographic reproductions, retouched with silver tip by Previati himself, preserved in the church of SS. Quirico and Paolo in Dogliani (CN).
The occasion of the presentation of the Via al Calvario of the Diocesan – which had not appeared in a public exhibition for over a hundred years -, alongside the entire Via Crucis of the Vatican Museums – also visible to the public after fifty years – suggests a reflection on the Passion of Christ, one of the most fascinating themes of Previati’s sacred painting.
The artist draws on the iconographic heritage of tradition, revisiting it incessantly and showing a knowledge of the symbolist ideas and experiments that prepare the expressionist climate.
Motherhood and Passion are for him a sign of the mystery of life and death: through brightness, the contrast of light and shadow and the flowing and dramatic brushstroke, the artist measures himself with the deepest questions of man, proposing images of intense spirituality.
Silvana Editoriale catalogue.
