Cenacles. From Andrea da Saronno to Andy Warhol. Masterpieces in an exhibition scattered in Saronno. The event for Jubilee 2025. – Carlo Franza’s blog

The Municipality of Saronno, in collaboration with the Flangini Association, presents the exhibition “Cenacoli. From Andrea da Saronno to Andy Warhol”, edited by Antonio D’Avossa. The initiative is part of the cultural program organized on the occasion of Jubilee 2025, dedicated to the themes of reconciliation, renewal and conversion spiritual.

The exhibition retraces the evolution of the theme of the Upper Cenacle, representation of one of the most intense moments in the story of the Gospels, through eras and artistic languages, with works hosted in different spaces of the city. The exhibition open to the public from 13 April to 25 May 2025, with an inauguration on Saturday 12 April 2025 at 16.30.

The artistic, cultural and spiritual path will start at the Art Cafè with an exceptionally granted seven-nineteenth-century engravings by the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, to continue at the Sala Nevera of the Morandi house, where works of modern and contemporary art will be exhibited, pop and films, among which pieces from China, Russia, USA (T-shirts, skateboard, watches, furniture, in others) are space. About fifty photos of Cenacles tattooed on human bodies, testifying to the transversal popularity of this religious image.

To extend and complete the exhibition path they join The sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Miracles with the Ligneo Cenacle, a sixteenth -century work by Andrea da Saronno (or from Corbetta) and Alberto da Lodi and the “G. Gianetti” ceramic museum which houses the work of Ugo the stone “The Last Supper”, exhibited in the main room of the museum, above the door, to the mention of the Cenacle Vinciano and a symbol of the great meaning that the ceramic always carries with itself: collect the story, keep it and share it, tell it again over time.

The choice of the icon, the Cenacle, finds reason to be in the relevance of this subject in western artistic and cultural history, but above all in the strong connection with the meanings and values ​​to which the Jubilee 2025 is referred to, Which sees in breaking bread the gesture with which God gives himself to man, arousing the profound desire for a true conversion. In fact, the Cenacle symbolizes the union between Christ and men, the new pact, which saves from spiritual death and free men from spiritual imprisonment remembering the love and sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of humanity.

The works on display, very varied in the type and artistic period, have as its common memory the universally known cenacle, that of Leonardo, which constitutes the best-known visual-segnate contact person of communion. The mixture made by the curator, Antonio D’Avossa, between high culture and low confirmation that between the two expressive forms there is always an exchange, although not always of Immediate perception, which in the case of “The Last Supper” appears instead in all its evidence.

The artists on display, belonging to the Italian and international panorama, express the different poetics, artistic techniques, cultures and origins: Joseph Beuys, Adolphe Braun*, Giulio De Mitri, Antonio Di Biase, Gabriele Di Matteo, Barbara Fässler, Jacob Frey*, Fabrizio Garghetti, Paul Goodwin, Maurice Henry, Jiri Kolar, David, David Lachapelle, Eris Monette, Raffaello Morghen*, Tomoko Nagao, Hermann Nitsch, Nicola Pankoff, Guido Peruz, Andrea Solario*, Daniel Sporri, Rudolf Stang*, Christian Tobas, Wolf Vostell, Andy Warhol, Uli Weber (*engravings of the ‘700 and’ 800 owned by the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera).

The promoter of the Cultural Review is the Municipality of Saronno, in collaboration with the Flangini Association and the participation of: the Risen Crucifix Pastoral Community, the Museum of Ceramics G. Gianetti di Saronno, the Cantastorie Association, the Cultural Circle of the Compass, the Popular Cooperative, the Il Tramway association, the Diocese youth pastoral care of Milan.

Carlo Franza