On Rai5 two documentaries dedicated to Botticelli and Gillo Dorfles, great masters in search of beauty

In the new episode of Art Night, a program by Silvia De Felice and by Massimo Favia and Marta Santella directed by Andrea Montemaggiori, which will air on Friday, April 16 at 9:15 p.m. on Rai 5, we will talk about the search for beauty through two great masters, Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1445 - 1510) and Gillo Dorfles (Trieste, 1910 - Milan, 2018). The works of the former were the result of the progressive search for a form as pure as possible, rendered through the use of drawing and an ideal, neo-Platonic beauty; the studies of the latter, a great art critic, focused mainly on aesthetics.

It starts with the first-run documentary Botticelli, Eternal Beauty, by Grit Lederer, produced by Medea Film for RBB and Arte: it aims to recount the influences Sandro Botticelli had on artists around the world, even centuries after his existence. From his works on the female figure, the famous Venus and Primavera, he has made his way into the artistic and pictorial memory of humanity.

What is the secret of Botticelli’s paintings? Why was he forgotten for centuries immediately after his death? Why did Benito Mussolini send Botticelli’s famous works to New York at the beginning of World War II? Why are Botticelli’s amazing pieces rarely seen today? What was Botticelli’s life actually like?

A tale that moves between Florence, Paris, New York and Berlin. To New York, in the archives of the Museum of Modern Art, which contain a variety of documents that explain why many of Botticelli’s masterpieces traveled to the United States in 1939. In Berlin where the archives of the Kupferstichkabinnet (Museum of Prints and Drawings) hold works that are rarely shown to the public. There are many artists who have been inspired by Botticelli, such as the French artist Orlan who has consistently challenged ideals of beauty. In many of his works he uses his own body as a creative canvas and demonstrates how Botticelli’s captivating work inspires his own creations. New Yorker Michael Joaquin Gray is also inspired by Botticelli: he has made a video in which a beautiful Renaissance piece is magically deconstructed.

At the end of the documentary will follow a documentary from the Teche Rai commented by art historian Vincenzo Trione: Gillo Dorfles, Being in Time. The thought, the art, the total work of Gillo Dorfles. A long autobiographical account in the first person and through the voices of friends and scholars to get to know this key figure of 20th-century critic and thinker up close.

Image: Sandro Botticelli, Primavera (c. 1482; tempera on panel, 207 x 319 cm; Florence, Uffizi Gallery)

On Rai5 two documentaries dedicated to Botticelli and Gillo Dorfles, great masters in search of beauty

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