until Friday September 10 2021
MART di Trento e Rovereto
Corso Bettini 43
38068 Rovereto
Italy
Worldly cafes, dizzying dresses, bourgeois elegance: the vaporous romanticism of the living rooms told by the most famous portraitist of the time, Giovanni Boldini.
The new great exhibition of the Rovereto museum is dedicated to him. 170 works from public and private collections, many of which belong to the heritage of the Boldini Museum in Ferrara, closed to the public after the 2012 earthquake.
Among the most virtuous and fruitful painters of his time, Boldini captures the essence of a dazzling environment, of which he is one of the most important protagonists. From Ferrara to Paris, passing through Florence and London, the Italian master studied Raphael, attended the Macchiaioli and the Caffè Michelangelo in Florence, met Courbet, Manet, Degas, and, having settled permanently in Paris, established himself as one of the most sought-after artists. Thanks also to a marked resourcefulness and considerable interpersonal skills, Boldini becomes the painter of social portraits. His paintings end up describing and at the same time defining the style, trends and aesthetics of the Ville Lumière, the undisputed European capital.
In the exhibition the activity of the Italian painter is reconstructed in its entirety through a rich chronological path, which leaves room for the deepening of some themes and relationships that have marked his long and fruitful career. In particular, the relationships with the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio are analyzed, through figures of common inspiring muses such as the "Divine Marchesa" Luisa Casati, cultured and transgressive, interpreter par excellence of the elegance and eccentricity of the Belle Époque.
