Maxi enlargements of famous paintings from the Pinacoteca di Brera cover the walls of a hospital

At theIstituto Clinico Humanitas, thanks to the Brera in Humanitas project, twenty-three details taken from fifteen masterpieces from the Pinacoteca di Brera come to the hospital’s waiting rooms and corridors. Maxi-format enlargements, made from 680million-pixel reproductions, total about 400 square meters of art.

Taking a seat in the waiting room before admission and being in Un’s garden after lunch, under the calm gaze of the women portrayed by Lega. Preparing for the chemotherapy session in 40 square meters of garden filled with pumpkins, in the company of the Fruttivendola del Campi. Rest among Raphael’s blue brushstrokes, in the shadow of the temple of the Marriage of the Virgin on 12 meters of wall in the Check Up area. Walk to the nurses’ locker rooms, in the basement of the hospital, along 23 meters of woods and bell towers of Bellotto’s Lombard panoramas. Getting lost among the placid waters of a landscape that, in Francia’sAnnunciation, forms the small backdrop to the main scene and now, in the hospital, becomes a 10-square-meter freestanding work of art. Be transported by Hayez’s The Kiss on the 8 meters of wall at the entrance. Or feel the gentle touch of the hands of Bordon’s The Venetian Lovers in the waiting room of the Fertility Center.

These are some of the experiences you can have in the hospital thanks to the masterpieces of Bernardo Bellotto, Paris Bordon, Vincenzo Campi, Carlo Crivelli, Piero della Francesca, Filippo De Pisis, Francesco Hayez, Il Francia, Silvestro Lega, Lorenzo Lotto, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Raphael and Simon Vouet.

The choice of details to be enlarged to a scale of 1:36 (1 centimeter on the original painting corresponds to 36 centimeters on the wall) focused on gestures of care, intense gazes and landscapes, in a play on parallels between art as care and care as art.

“We are grateful to Pinacoteca di Brera and Amici di Brera for participating enthusiastically in this unique project,” says Gianfelice Rocca, president of Humanitas. “An example of collaboration between two great institutions, strongly rooted in the territory but with a clear international vocation. An innovative experience whose philosophy is shared worldwide by research and treatment centers such as Cleveland Clinic. Hospitals, in fact, are a crossroads of needs, a vital node of skills and experiences, where the language of care remains human and is intertwined with technological innovation: here art and beauty become a factor of contact between people, of well-being and reflection for patients and professionals. Beauty has been in the DNA of Humanitas since its inception starting with the architectural choices, materials and colors for the interior environments. ”Brera in Humanitas“ makes the link between care and beauty even more true for the 11,000 people, including health professionals, patients and companions, who experience our hospital and campus every day.”

“This initiative,” says Pinacoteca di Brera and Braidense Library Director James M. Bradburne, “makes a difference for those who work, for those who are visiting family or friends, or for those undergoing treatment, helping to make the hospital experience less worrisome and more reassuring by showing details of some of Brera’s masterpieces. Not everyone can always come to the Museum, but Brera is with you when you need it most. A proposal that fits into our multi-year project We need a whole city, which encourages the participation of families, children, with special attention to people with special needs reaffirming the fundamental social role of culture, thinking of the museum as a reference point for an entire community.”

“Beauty, art, and meditation are acts and gestures that often present themselves as authentic medicine for the soul,” comments Carlo Orsi, president of Amici di Brera. “They help us feel good. They detach us from the everyday and project us to a dimension of inner peace. When this project was proposed to us, we immediately agreed. So many times as Friends of Brera we have been able to contemplate how art is authentically beneficial in so many different contexts. I cite as an example the beautiful project promoted with Progetto Itaca that allowed them to train some of their patients as museum guides. To think that today patients and health care and staff and all those who frequent the facilities of Humanitas are enveloped in beauty gives us hope that those reproductions can give them the strength to face and live the everyday. The Friends of Brera have always aimed to increase awareness of the extraordinary works in the Pinacoteca. Brera is a great museum, increasingly in the hearts of all of us.”

“We have selected 23 details from paintings in the Brera collection, transforming them into extraordinary enlargements that cover the walls of the hospital showing gestures, looks, landscapes that with their beauty become support for patients and those who work in the hospital. A path started in November 2021 carefully built through meetings, reflections, analysis of details and inspections in the wards. I am very satisfied with this path and the final result, and I am sure that these images will reach everyone’s soul directly,” concludes Alessandra Quarto, director of the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, who initiated the project in 2021, when she was deputy director of the Brera Art Gallery.

Brera in Humanitas is a new chapter in La Cura e la Bellezza, a project that began in 2018 with La Carrara in Humanitas, which brought the art of the Museo Accademia Carrara to the Humanitas Gavazzeni and Castelli hospitals in Bergamo. Here, large installations accompanied the most difficult moments of the Covid-19 pandemic, becoming a support for health workers and patients.

The ultra-high-resolution images were printed on a special wallfilm that reproduces thetextural effect of canvases, bringing out brush strokes and small cracks. The project preserves the hospital’s functional elements: lights, temperature controllers, fire extinguishers, fire exits and monitors are now “set” between the brushstrokes of the Brera masters. Each artistic wall is accompanied by a caption in Italian and English. QR codes link to the project website, with in-depth information on each work on display and the video, created with the participation of doctors, nurses, social and health care workers (OSS), reception staff and Humanitas staff.

More than 900 physicians, 400 researchers, more than 1,500 nurses, technicians, biologists, OSS and about 600 staff work at Humanitas. For them, the hospital organized museum visits and lunchtime art history meetings with the Brera Guides and Educational Services to preview the project and become testimonials for other colleagues and patients. Thus was also born the project video, which portrays Humanitas professionals in their activities serving the thousands of people who come into the hospital every day.

Maxi enlargements of famous paintings from the Pinacoteca di Brera cover the walls of a hospital

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