The great Christmas exhibition at Palazzo Marino returns from today 4 December 2024, the now traditional appointment with great Italian and international art which every year gives the Milanese an extraordinary exhibition, free of charge and set up in Sala Alessi, the large and historic hall representative of the Municipality of Milan. For all the holidays and until January 12, 2025, the Milanese and the increasingly numerous tourists will be able to admire a great masterpiece of the Italian and European Renaissance: The Madonna with child and saints Simon and Judasknown as “The Madonna of San Simone” by Federico Barocci, a large altarpiece from the National Gallery of the Marche in Urbino.
From 14 December to 5 January, thanks to the initiative Christmas in the Villagespromoted and organized in collaboration with the Antichi Borghi Milanesi Association, it will be possible to participate in free guided tours organized in 18 sites identified within the nine city municipalities which will allow you to discover architectural and artistic treasures spread across the Milanese territory.
The exhibition “Federico Barocci, The Madonna of San Simone” is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan thanks to the contribution of Intesa Sanpaolo, an institutional partner which for years, together with the support of Rinascente, has supported the Administration in this annual project. The exhibition is curated by Luigi Gallo and Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari, while the organization is entrusted to Civita Mostre e Musei. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Skira Editore.
Created by the great painter from Urbino between 1566 and 1567, the monumental altarpiece (made in oil on canvas and on paper, 283×190 cm) it was one of the protagonists of the great retrospective dedicated to Barocci at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, from 19 June to 6 October, and constitutes one of the masterpieces of the Collection of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.
Federico Fiori known as Barocci (Urbino 1533 – 1612) is a direct heir of the classicism of Raphael (Urbino, 1483 – Rome, 1520) and his work ideally closes the great Renaissance season and, at the same time, the equally extraordinary one of the Duchy of Montefeltro, artistically dominated by names who have made the history of art such as Piero della Francesca and Donato Bramante. Defined by Vasari as a “young man with great expectations”, Barocci was immediately presented as the new Sanzio, returning to bring glory to the ducal city; but, while Raphael set out for Rome at a very young age, Federico Barocci at thirty, after important stays and commissions in Rome, made the choice, unusual at the time, to remain in his hometown, far from the great cultural centers. Nonetheless, Barocci became the interlocutor of popes, sovereigns and emperors, also thanks to the mediation of his lord and friend, the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere. He also became one of the favorite painters of Federico Borromeo, cardinal and archbishop of Milan since 1595, whose passion for art led him to turn to numerous foreign artists to enrich his collection, contributing to making Milan an inclusive city open to all. international art: this is why he purchased a splendid “Nativity” by Barocci at the beginning of the seventeenth century, which can be admired at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Federico Barocci’s artistic career is defined, through almost six decades of activity, by his altarpieces. For the historical period, the number of altarpieces created by Barocci is “absolutely exceptional”, also considering the fact that they represent the vast majority of his artistic production. Barocci actually also executed frescoes, religious works, some splendid portraits and a single profane painting, but it is the thirty or so altarpieces that define the profile of his work.
Built around 1567, “the Madonna of San Simone” dominated the altar of the seventh chapel of the church Urbino of San Francesco. The canvas represents Saint Judas Thaddeus, identified with the halberd of his martyrdom, to the right of the Madonna; San Simone, recognizable thanks to the saw used by his tormentors to kill him; and to the left of the main group the Virgin and Child. Barocci’s ability to evoke human tenderness is extraordinary – learned above all from Correggio, especially in the figure of the Virgin teaching her son to read. In addition to the sacred subjects, the portraits of the clients, donors of the work to the Church, also appear at the bottom right, expressing a great vivid participation in the sacred scene, a symbol of personal and collective devotion.
The curators of the exhibition at Palazzo Marino, Luigi Gallo and Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari state that “the work on display in Milan, a city with which the artist has had important and continuous relationships for some works, in particular for the Fabbrica del Duomo, is a pinnacle of Federico’s early maturity, at the center of the construction of his very personal style, full of an entirely emotional internal dynamism, modulated with sensitive colors, to intone, in a Franciscan way, a hymn to the harmony of creation: men, plants, animals. (…) A work that speaks to the heart, that touches the emotional chords, that involves us with its impetuous sweetness, its loving kindness”.
The exhibition is enriched by a precious autograph drawing by Barocci, coming from the Cabinet of Drawings of the Sforzesco Castle, preparatory for a figure of a devotee in the altarpiece of the “Madonna del Popolo” painted today preserved in the Uffizi. Made between 1575 and 1579, the sheet offers the possibility of immersing oneself in Barocci’s creative process, discovering the techniques and secrets behind the creation of one of his most admired masterpieces. It is in fact a fragment of a large cartoon, drawn in charcoal and white chalk, where the contours of the figure are engraved with a stylus to trace the composition directly onto the altarpiece. Now the drawing will be exhibited at Palazzo Marino, a few steps from Palazzo Belgioioso, where it was kept from the end of the eighteenth century until 1943, the year in which it was donated to the Milanese civic collections.
Merry Christmas 2024 to everyone, friends far and near, readers and non-readers.
Carlo Franza