GAM in Turin rediscovers the huge Saluzzo Fair painted in the late 19th century by Carlo Pittara

Turin’s GAM is offering the public an exhibition to rediscover an important painting from its collections that has never been exhibited for thirty-eight years. It is the enormous work known as Fiera di Saluzzo (17th century), painted by Carlo Pittara (Turin, 1835 - Rivara, 1891) and presented in 1880 at the IV National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Turin: the painting evokes a 17th-century fair with animals, set just outside the walls of Saluzzo. It is a work of monumental dimensions: 4.08 meters high by 8.11 meters wide.

In June 1880, during the Exposition, the painting was purchased by Baron Ignazio Weil-Weiss, and it was not until 1917 that it became part of the collections of the GAM in Turin. The work was exhibited for the last time in the summer of 1981 at Palazzo Madama, as part of the exhibition Alfredo d’Andrade. Protection and Restoration: the canvas was then wrapped on a roll and placed in the museum’s storage rooms where it has been kept until today.

The exhibition, curated by Virginia Bertone, sketches the training of Carlo Pittara and the years of the Rivara School, the Piedmontese landscape painters active in the 1860s, to focus on the history and critical fortune of the Saluzzo Fair. The remounting of the painting is thus meant to be an opportunity for rediscovery, study and in-depth study, in an attempt to rediscover the motivations behind the great depiction. At the same time, the exhibition of the painting allowed to verify its conservation condition, for which purpose a new frame was made to replace the no longer usable one from 1981.

The large work aroused great enthusiasm of the public who visited the National Exhibition, due to the originality of the invention, the realistic rendering of the reconstruction of the ancient fair, alongside the life-size dimension of the representation. The result is striking: a large parade of horsemen, costumed characters and a great many animals: from goats to cattle, from thoroughbred horses to draught horses, from farm animals to dogs, and even a monkey portrayed on the shoulder of a young man for the purpose of drawing attention to the wares of a picturesque trinket seller.

The painting is flanked by a large chart that allows visitors to identify the buildings and dwellings of Saluzzo, and to appreciate the different species of animals depicted. For the recognition and study of the animals painted with great skill by Pittara, the exhibition relies in particular on the contribution of several Lecturers and former Lecturers of the Department of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Turin, as part of a collaboration on the occasion of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Turin Veterinary School.

Concluding the itinerary is a section devoted to the 1880 National Exhibition that features the City of Turin’s various purchases for the Civic Museum, starting with one of the prize-winning canvases, Cesare Maccari’s The Deposition of Pope Silverio, which reflects an impressive search for truth in the depiction of the figures, again large to life, inspired by the late antique Roman age. To the evocation of the early martyrs is dedicated the marble ofEulalia Cristiana by Emilio Franceschi, also awarded, while the Orientalist taste was answered by the sensual representation of the Slave Girl by Giacomo Ginotti. The survey carried out on the occasion of the exhibition brought to light several other works within the GAM collection that participated in that event and were donated to the museum at later times: this is the case of a subject not far from the Pittara one, such as Felice Cerruti Bauduc’s Animal Fair in Moncalieri, which was, however, completely overshadowed by the presence of the Saluzzo Fair, or again the singular subject of the now elderly Francesco Gonin, The First Horse Tamed by Man. Also on display are Domenico Morelli ’s splendid Studies for the "Temptations of St. Anthony," which allow us to recall the presence of the painting that the artist successfully presented at the Exposition. Domenico Morelli was awarded a diploma of honor on that occasion, while Antonio Fontanesi, who presented his latest effort The Clouds, was ignored and excluded from the awards.

The exhibition Horses, Costumes and Dwellings. The rediscovery of the “Saluzzo Fair (17th century)” by Carlo Pittara, open from Dec. 19, 2019 to April 13, 2020, has the scientific collaboration of Lea Antonioletti, Sonia Damiano and Alice Guido and is accompanied by a catalog published by Silvana Editoriale.

For all information you can visit the official website of GAM Turin.

Pictured: Carlo Pittara, The Saluzzo Fair (17th century) (1880; oil on canvas, 408 x 811 cm; Turin, GAM)

GAM in Turin rediscovers the huge Saluzzo Fair painted in the late 19th century by Carlo Pittara

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