An important exhibition on medieval civilization between Umbria and Marche in Matelica

The Piersanti Museum in Matelica(Macerata) is hosting, from June 8 to November 4, 2018, the exhibition Milleduecento. Figurative Civilization between Umbria and Marche at the Sunset of the Romanesque. The exhibition, curated by Fulvio Cervini, traces the history of Umbrian and Marche civilization through its medieval heritage, dating from around the year 1200.

The exhibition recalls, in its title, Year 1200, the major exhibition mounted in the spaces of the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1970, which posed the theme of the great courtly language that traversed large swaths of Western Europe at the turn of the century; but it also recalls, not only by assonance, Duecento. Forms and Colors of the Middle Ages in Bologna, the important Bolognese exhibition of 2000, moreover largely focused on painting; and again similar and more recent reflections matured in French lands, such as the exhibition Una renaissance. L’art entre Flandre et Champagne 1150-1250(Saint Omer and Paris, 2013), instead very much oriented to the precious arts. Certainly the Matelica exhibition does not seek to rival these initiatives but, like them, it tends to tread a high road of international medieval studies, and is the result of research that the promoters have long undertaken.

The novelty of this exhibition consists in the fact that the Umbrian and Marche case has never, until now, been adequately focused on in this perspective. The exhibition itinerary is developed around five thematic nuclei: the first, A Model Crucifix, presents the crucifix of Matelica as a witness of excellence of a typology very well represented in the Marche region in the autumn of the 12th century. The second core, Sculptures as Goldsmiths and Goldsmiths as Sculptures, aims instead to highlight the intersections between the arts under the banner of the preciousness, real or simulated, of the artifacts. The third section, Painting in Three Dimensions, opens with the singular crucifix from Arquata del Tronto, which declares itself to all intents and purposes as a relief painting. A New Sense of Nature in the Encounter between the Arts aims to show how the osmosis between painting, sculpture and the suntuary arts generates a renewed sense of reality that inspires one of the highest and most decisive formal revolutions in Western civilization. The last, small section, Miniature Sculptures, returns to the world of the suntuary arts to highlight other, juicy interferences: the metal arts inspire formulas that painting and sculpture translate into the large scale, but in turn take up certain statuary solutions in the smallest format.

This is proven by a number of thuribles, from Cortona, Arezzo and Florence, and a significant selection of matrices for Umbrian and Marche seals from the thirteenth century, preserved at the Bargello Museum, including, precisely, the matrix of the Municipality of Matelica.Also presented here will be one of the 12th-century illuminated codices preserved in the Vallicelliana Library in Rome but originating from the abbey of Sant’Eutizio in the Castoriana Valley, a place devastated by the earthquake on which the church in the Matelica area depended, where the Piersanti Museum crucifix was located.

The exhibition is sponsored by Mibact, Marche Region, Municipality of Matelica, Diocese of Fabriano-Matelica, Museo Piersanti, University of Camerino, SAGAS Department of Art History in Florence and Anci Marche and is accompanied by a catalog published by Silvana Editoriale.

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Ticket price: full price €8, reduced €6 (12 to 18 years old, over 65, FAI members, Touring Club, groups of more than 10 people, residents of the Municipality of Matelica, students in humanities and art history).Free for children up to 11 years old, disabled with accompanying person, press, military in uniform. Reduced exhibition with coupon discount project Mostrare le Marche 6 €, downloadable at this address. For information and reservations you can call 0737 84445, or send an email to museopiersantimatelica@virgilio.it.

Pictured Crucifix, Cathedral of St. Evasius, Casale Monferrato, c. 1170.

An important exhibition on medieval civilization between Umbria and Marche in Matelica

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