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In January 1997 has been inaugurated an important cultural event: ”For the glory and decorum of the city. Donations and acquisitions of paintings at the Civic Museum ( XV – XIX cent.)”; in this occasion over one hundred paintings were exhibited ( prestigious works of artist from the XV to the XIX cent.) in the splendid halls of the Ursino Castle, restored and turned back to the city after tens of years of neglect.
The exhibition, recalling to mind a previous one named “ The time regained” was made possible by the cooperation between the city Administration, the University and the Superintendence to the cultural patrimony. A team of experts has worked to arrange the spaces for the display, to restore the works and analyse with an accurate scientific approach the painting with belong to a precious patrimony that, step by step, will be returned to the local community.
Claudia Guastella, who has taken care of the scientific aspect of the exhibition, writers: “Today the exhibition of some of the most significant and well know painting- while the restauration and recovery of paintings are in progress, together with the work on the monument- is meant to fasten again the thread of the relation between the museum and the city, resuming the memory of the continuous confluence of private painting collectionism into the project of public picture gallery of the city”.
The works exhibited in the halls belong to donations by distinguished citizens of Catania, who aimed to the institution of a public museum to be offered to those who were searching and loving beauty.
Back in 1826, the Municipality of Catania, was already given in donation the precious collection of paintings by G.B. Finocchiaro. After the acquisition to the artistic patrimony of churches and convents, suppressed by the Siccardi act and notably of the Benedictine monastery, from 1876 a selection of paintings was arranged into the Monastery of Piazza Dante.
The patrimony was enriched by the contributions of the families Rapisardi, Biscardi, Gandalfo, Mirone, Zappalà Asmundo.
Today the works that can be admired cover a wide lapse of time, going from the early XV cent. To the end of the XIX.
In order to improve the comprehension of the paintings, tables have been displayed containing informations about the authors and the various artistic movements.
The secret pleasure of the Collection
“The collection is an instrument of knowlodge. Attributing to an artist an anonymous work discovered at an auction, distinguishing the original from a copy, researching on the history of a painting, all these are steps which allow us a progress in the knowledge of the painting.
But what all this is for, if we like the painting, if we love it?
Actually, recognizing the liveliness of the gesture and the extreme expressive economy of the artist, picking out the outline revealing the hand of the master, including the work into the context of the activity of the author or the school to which he belongs, decoding the allegoric meaning…all these are elements which create various “feedback effects” on the spectator.
He will also take profit thanks to the identification of significant details, insuspected till that time.
The knowledge enriches, renews and diversifies the emotion.
The comprehension of the painting is a part of the whole delight which we drow from its contemplation”. ( Jean-Pierre Changeux, Ragione e piacere, 1995)
copyright Giuseppe Maimone Publisher