History of Modern Art

PROGRAM FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

THIS PROGRAM EXPIRES IN JULY 2025
Knowledge of the topics of the monographic course must be accompanied by the study of the development of the history of art (architecture, sculpture, painting) from the beginning of the fifteenth to the end of the eighteenth Century: from the late Gothic to Neoclassicism (inclusive). For this you can use any good manual. Please avoid email requests for a specific manual title. Visual knowledge of the greatest possible number of works of art is required. Is essential to visit Churches and Museums, particularly in Milan (Italian Touring Club guides are recommended). It is also recommended to study "I classici dell'arte" (published by Rizzoli publishing house) and "I maestri del colore" e "I maestri della scultura" (by Fabbri publishing house).

Knowledge of the basic concepts of historical chronology and main movements of Italian and European literature and culture is recommended. Classes are in Italian language.

The course is addressed to students of Science of Cultural Heritage and is open to bachelor and master students of Humanities, History, Languages and Philosophy.

MONOGRAPHIC COURSE

Tanzio da Varallo, "il Caravaggio delle Alpi"

Tanzio da Varallo's greatness was recognised during the 20th century mainly through art exhibitions: first sporadic appearances in more general exhibitions on the 17th century (Florence, 1922) or on Caravaggio (Milan, 1951) or on the Mannerists of Lombardy and Piedmont (Ivrea and Turin, 1955), then - finally - the monographic exhibition in 1959 in Turin, at Palazzo Madama. This exhibition, devised by Giovanni Testori (1923-1993), was a great success and after the Turin presentation, it was transferred to Varallo in the summer of 1960.
Tanzio's exhibition in Varallo coincided with the Pinacoteca's season of maximum splendour, at that time under the care of engineer Giorgio Rolandi, a Valsesian entrepreneur living in Milan.
From 1960 to the present day, there have been two other monographic exhibitions on the painter (leaving aside the dossiers, such as the one in L'Aquila in 1995 on the Abruzzi works freshly restored): one in Milan, in Palazzo Reale, in 2000, and one in Naples, at the Gallerie d'Italia, in Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, in 2014-2015. Both gave account of more or less significant increases in the research on this artist, whose activity in southern Italy - after the openings of Roberto Longhi and Ferdinando Bologna - has gradually come into focus. First there was the recovery of works destined for Abruzzo, then - starting with an attribution by Giovanni Previtali - the discovery of those in Naples, preserved and lost, and the importance of the artist's stay in Valsesia in Italy's most populous city at the beginning of the 17th century. Alongside the paintings that have re-emerged, the corpus of drawings has been defined, comprising dozens of figures, characterised by a peculiar graphic style. The documentary evidence, discovered by Stefania Stefani Perrone (1928-2018), regarding Tanzio's activity as a sculptor, has not yet been put in order.
The reviews just mentioned have promoted and popularised a point of view that places Tanzio in the top ranks of European figurative events of the 17th century: a fact that can now be considered finally acquired; it would suffice to refer to him in school textbooks, such as the one edited in 2019 by Salvatore Settis and Tomaso Montanari, where the painter is called "one of the most fascinating artists of the Italian 17th century".