Major exhibition in Rome on Mattia and Gregorio Preti with many works on display for the first time

From February 22 to June 16, 2019, the National Gallery of Ancient Art at Palazzo Barberini is hosting the exhibition The Triumph of the Senses. New Light on Mattia and Gregorio Preti, curated by Alessandro Cosma and Yuri Primarosa. The exhibition examines the early activity of Mattia Preti (Taverna, 1613 - Valletta, 1699) and his training in the Roman workshop of his brother Gregorio (Taverna, 1603 - Rome, 1672) and revolves around theAllegoryof the Five Senses from the Barberini Corsini National Galleries, a monumental canvas of Caravaggio’s imprint, which remained for years in storage at the Circolo Ufficiali delle Forze Armate. Painted by the two brothers in the 1640s, it is recorded in 1686 in the collection of Maffeo Barberini junior as a painting per longo with several portraits: who sona, who sings, who plays, who drinks and who gabba il compagno, a description that underscores the complex articulation of the painting where, according to a model much in vogue in the seventeenth century, different groups of characters intent on daily activities become allegorical images of the five senses.

The painting was restored for the occasion by Giuseppe Mantella, who has been working for years on the works of Mattia Preti in Malta and Calabria, thanks to the generous funding of the Dentons law firm, which sponsored the intervention and the in-depth series of diagnostic investigations allowing a better understanding of the executive practice of the two brothers, who were active with four hands on the same canvas. Eleven other works will be on view in the exhibition that tell of the close ties that existed between the two Calabrian artists: on the one hand, Gregorio, linked to outcomes that are still academic in nature, and on the other, the younger and more talented Mattia, influenced by the Caravaggio universe and already aware of the new Guercinesque and Lanfranchian developments in the Roman Baroque.The Allegory of the Five Senses from Palazzo Barberini will be exhibited to the public for the first time along with the Concert with Scene of Good Fortune, its ideal pendant from the Albertina Academy in Turin, and other paintings that are the result of the two artists’ collaboration, such as Christ before Pilate from Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi and Christ Healing Lydropic from a private Milanese collection.

The exhibition will also feature important unpublished paintings by Mattia: first and foremost, the monumental Christ and the Canaanite Woman, originally in the collection of the Colonna Princes, a capital work of the painter’s Roman period, datable on documentary grounds to 1646-1647. The discovery of the extraordinary painting (the first of the artist provided with a certain date) has made it possible to clarify the chronology of his early production. Also on public view for the first time will be the Archimede, now in Varese, and an Apostle from a private collection in Turin, which document Mattia’s early reflection on the painting of Caravaggio and José de Ribera. Closing the exhibition is another new proposal for the artist’s Roman years: an admirable Head of a Little Girl, found in the deposits of the Corsini Gallery.

Many collateral activities are planned: an extraordinary occasion for visitors will be free guided tours by the curators (information on the website). Also scheduled is a series of lectures on Mattia and Gregorio Preti, with talks by Luca Calenne, Alessandro Cosma, Francesca Curti, Riccardo Lattuada, Giuseppe Mantella, Gianni Papi and Yuri Primarosa. The catalog, published by De Luca Editori dArte, collects the results of research by Tommaso Borgogelli, Alessandro Cosma, Francesca Curti, Riccardo Lattuada, Gianni Papi, and Yuri Primarosa and notes on restoration and diagnostic investigations by Sante Guido and Giuseppe Mantella.

The exhibition can be visited during the opening hours of the National Gallery of Palazzo Barberini: Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. (last admission at 6 p.m.), closed Mondays. Tickets (valid for both locations of the National Galleries of Ancient Art): full 12 euros, reduced 10 euros. The ticket is valid from the moment it is stamped for 10 days in both museum venues: Palazzo Barberini and Galleria Corsini. Free: under 18 years of age, school groups and accompanying teachers of the European Union (with prior reservation), students and teachers of Architecture, Humanities (archaeological or historical-artistic address), Conservation of Cultural Heritage and Educational Sciences, Academies of Fine Arts, employees of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, ICOM members, tour guides and interpreters on duty, journalists with dellordine card, handicapped persons with accompanying person, school teaching staff, tenured or with term contract, upon presentation of appropriate attestation on the model prepared by Miur. For info: phone 06-4824184, email comunicazione@barberinicorsini.org, official website www.barberinicorsini.org.

Pictured: theAllegory of the Five Senses by Mattia and Gregorio Preti.

Major exhibition in Rome on Mattia and Gregorio Preti with many works on display for the first time

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