Melozzo da Forli' feted in home town
Restored Piero della Francesca madonna also on show
04 February, 15:34
(ANSA) - Forli'- A museum in the Marche town of Forli' is celebrating its most famous son of the Italian Renaissance in a landmark art exhibit running January 29 to June 12.
The Musei di San Domenico di Forli' is uniting nearly all transportable artwork by the influential master Melozzo da Forli' and, as part of the same exhibit, will also show Piero della Francesca's masterpiece Madonna di Senigallia, which has been restored for the first time in nearly 60 years.
Melozzo da Forli', who lived from about 1438 to 1494, was born and raised in Forli', and became the most famous alumnus of the Forli' school.
While less internationally renowned than other legendary figures of the Italian Renaissance, Melozzo was the first Renaissance painter to successfully practice foreshortening and paved the way for great masters like Raphael and Michelangelo, who borrowed much from Melozzo for their own work.
The Forli' exhibit will be the most complete exhibit ever dedicated to Melozzo, and will reunite a colossal cycle of frescos removed from the apse of the Church of Holy Apostles in Rome, normally housed in the Vatican Museum and the presidential palace, the Quirinale.
The exhibit will also feature works by those who taught or were taught by Melozzo, including Mantegna, Bramante, Raphael and Perugino. Melozzo was particularly influenced by Piero della Francesca's style and use of perspective.
He met Piero della Francesca in Urbino sometime between 1465 and 1475, during the latter's sojourn at the court of Urbino under Federico a Montefeltro.
The Madonna di Senigallia dates from the period, and was completed around 1475.
The Madonna di Senigallia, a portrait of the Madonna and child, shows Piero's remarkable technical experimentation, and documents his passage from tempura to oil paints.
It is famed for its spare, rigorous composition, skillful use of perspective, and treatment of light. The influence of Flemish masters can be seen in details like the fabric covering the Madonna's head, a symbolic coral necklace worn by the baby Jesus, and a linen basket in the background.
It was last restored in the 1950s and regional authorities required new work on the Madonna di Senigallia to prepare it for the Melozzo exhibit.
For the first time, experts in Rome performed diagnostic tests on the cohesion and adhesion of paint and preparatory layers.
Restorers meticulously cleaned the painting with the assistance of a stereomicroscope and repaired its pictorial gaps.
Thanks to this work, viewers can appreciate the full glory of the painting's original hues.
