In Rome, Napoleonic Museum dedicates exhibition to collecting oriental art

The Napoleonic Museum in Rome is hosting from March 15 to September 8, 2024 an exhibition dedicated to collecting Oriental and Japanese art: Giuseppe Primoli and the Fascination of the Orient, in conjunction with the exhibition Ukiyoe. The Floating World. Visions from Japan currently underway at the Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi. The exhibition is promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and is curated by Elena Camilli Giammei, Laura Panarese and Marco Pupillo. Organization Zètema Progetto Cultura. At the center of the exhibition is a rare collection of 14 kakemono, rectangular strips of paper or fabric of various lengths to be hung vertically, painted in watercolor and ink with classical subjects of Japanese painting in the genre of “flowers and birds,” which belonged to collector Giuseppe Primoli (Rome, 1851 - 1927).

Nine of these artifacts have recently undergone restoration and return to public view after several years. This unique collection features signatures, dedications and autographed compositions of eminent Italian-French poets, writers and cultural figures up to the 1930s. Among them are Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Prévost, Émile Zola, Stephane Mallarmé, Paul Valery, Paul Claudel, Henry Bergson and many others, along with well-known Italian literati such as Giosuè Carducci, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Cesare Pascarella, Arrigo Boito, Giovanni Verga, Matilde Serao, as well as theater actors such as Eleonora Duse and political and royal figures from all over Europe. In addition to kakemono, other precious objects are presented in the exhibition: about 70 prints, paintings, manuscripts, drawings, engravings, and porcelain. A nucleus of important documentary and art-historical value that tells of the taste and interest in the Orient on the part of the count and the Bonaparte-Primoli family, revealing the influence that the art of Japan, the Asian continent and the East in general exerted on European culture and collecting in the late 19th century.

Count Giuseppe Primoli spent his youth in Paris during the time of Napoleon III, where he developed an interest in Oriental art thanks to the fashion of japonisme. In this context, he befriended important artists and intellectuals, such as the de Goncourt brothers, Zola and Loti, and frequented the salon of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte. His collection thus reflects an eclectic and undefined taste, with a variety of exotic and Orientalist works, while the exhibition also includes Orientalist photographs taken by the count himself. Among the most prestigious and representative works of Japanist taste belonging to the museum collection is the silk fan with Japanese landscape entitled The Descent of the Wild Geese to Katata, painted in watercolor by Giuseppe De Nittis in Paris around 1880 for Princess Mathilde Bonaparte. It will also be an opportunity to admire drawings with exotic and Oriental subjects, period photographs of Orientalist subjects and taste, woodcuts, temperas and carvings on paper executed with the “kirigami” technique, chinoiseries and japonaiseries, and archival documents. The exhibition concludes with a section related to the astonishing Grand Tour to India of Count Luigi Primoli, younger brother of Giuseppe (1904-06). On display are carved stones and painted terracottas of Indian manufacture depicting religious characters and subjects, a copy of the Koran on palm leaves of Indian manufacture belonging to the Primoli Foundation, and some photographs taken by Lulu himself.

In Rome, Napoleonic Museum dedicates exhibition to collecting oriental art

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.