Breraviglie: illustrated captions and rhyming rhymes recount the masterpieces of the Brera Art Gallery

As of May 10, 2023, the Pinacoteca di Brera will be enriched with a new way to read the museum’s works: Breraviglie - Wonders of Brera Painted in Rhyme. The new project will make available to all visitors a new free audio guide and a new set of seven captions related to it.

Breraviglie - Wonders of Brera Pa inted in Rhyme refers to rhyming, illustrated nursery rhymes intended to tell in a light and ironic tone peculiarities and secrets of some of the works on display. The idea was born for fun, from the desire of a restorer of the museum, Ilaria Negri, to transmit with simplicity and immediacy, the wealth of knowledge collected over time by a museum always on the move that never stops studying its works. The Breraviglie were born on the spur of the moment: in fact, a precious attunement was created with the paintings that are the protagonists of the narrative and an affectionate bond between the restorer and the works, and it is this kind of empathy that is intended to be transmitted to the reader. In order to broaden this experience to a wider audience, part of the texts created by Ilaria Negri has been freely interpreted and translated into English by Brera Art Gallery director James M. Bradburne; the texts have also been enhanced by the reading of voice actor Annalisa Longo.

The new Breraviglie audio-guided tour (accessible via the website or free izi.TRAVEL App) includes nine audio tracks in Italian, three of which are also in English. The Italian tracks feature the voice of voice actor Annalisa Longo, who interpreted the texts internalizing content and atmosphere through close dialogue with the author; the English reading and interpretation, on the other hand, are by James M. Bradburne. The project, however, does not stop at the creation of an audioguide, but embraces the Braidian idea of inclusion, which is also expressed through the presentation of different types of captions with a museum intended to offer the visitor through multiple voices, multiple keys to interpretation, in order to stimulate the viewer to activate his or her own inclinations and interact with fellow visitors as well.

Seven of the nine nursery rhy mes have been chosen to create a new caption path: the rhyming texts are ironically accompanied by an illustration, again created by Ilaria Negri, to best capture the spirit and theme dealt with in each composition. The QR Code on each caption allows visitors to listen to the rhymes, enriching their cognitive and emotional experience. Two of the seven captions are in English and accompanied by bilingual audio. Visitors can thus freely choose the mode of enjoyment they prefer, read or listen.

“Breraviglie” is an expression of many of Brera’s most important values: it appeals to families and children; it adds a new poetic language to the chorus of voices already present at Brera; it shows the richness of the Brera team by presenting the work of a collaborator-who could ask for more? Breraviglie is at the heart of Brera," says James Bradburne, director of the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Braidense National Library.

The nursery rhymes illuminate a particular aspect of the work from time to time without ever betraying the truth, but only allowing themselves to evoke some affectionately mocking images of the characters that populate the paintings. The language, designed for an adult audience, should not intimidate the little ones who, with the help of the illustrations and interaction with their companion, will be able to come to grasp the content that suits them best and enjoy reading and listening to the rhymes.

Well-documented in the sources, but not as well known, is the troubled payment of the portrait commissioned by Liberale da Pinedel by Lorenzo Lotto, which offers food for thought on the relationship between artists and patrons in certain cultural contexts. Carlo Crivelli ’s Triptych of San Domenico allows us to grasp the preciousness of the execution technique deployed by a unique artist. Diagnostic investigations conducted by the Pinacoteca allow us to recount the curious birth of some paintings, modified during the artist’s lifetime(Madonna and Child by Fernando Yanez, The Marble Sawmill by Carlo Carrà) or made on canvases already painted with other subjects(Enfant gras by Amedeo Modigliani). The intricate conservation histories of Andrea Mantegna ’s Madonna of the Cherubs and Vincenzo Foppa ’s Madonna and Child introduce ancient restoration practices that helped form the paintings’ current appearance. Compositions dedicated to Simone Peterzano ’s Venus and Giovanni da Milano ’s Christ Enthroned wink at aspects of the human soul, spanning time and space. The common thread is thus the life shared by men and works of art and the indissoluble relationship that binds them, giving them mutual identity.

Breraviglie: illustrated captions and rhyming rhymes recount the masterpieces of the Brera Art Gallery

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