February 12th – June 4th, 2017

 

The exhibition – curated by Maria Cristina Bandera – presents a new comparison between Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca. At a first glance this comparison might seem risky. But the reasons are easy to understand looking at the two artists, so far and so different from each other, under the spotlight of Roberto Longhi; both were studied and "rediscovered" by the great art historian during his educational years.

Roberto Longhi (1890-1970) was one of the most fascinating characters of the XX century art history. He carried out pivotal studies about Caravaggio, Piero della Francesca and other artists, in an essay he called "Officina Ferrarese".

Longhi was a modern discoverer, a sharp scholar and a collector of Caravaggio. Around 1928 he acquired for his own collection The boy bitten by a lizard. The canvas, painted around 1595, is certainly one of the most significant early masterpieces by Caravaggio that, with its beautiful still life details and extraordinary light effects, is able to capture, like a sort of snapshot, the moment when the young boy suddenly retracts after the bite of a green lizard.

Longhi wrote a fundamental monograph about Piero della Francesca. This essay was crucial for a new interpretation of the painter born in Borgo Santo Sepolcro. The exhibition opens with the magnificent Polyptych of the Misericordia, recently exhibited with a great success at Palazzo Marino in Milan, and then brought back to its original place in the Sansepolcro Civic Museum.

Ercole de' Roberti’s Portrait of a young man and, on its back side, his Portrait of a young woman - belonging to a private collection – is exhibited as a testimony of the“progeny, though evolved and mixed with venetian elements” of the young man's "sharp" profile from Piero della Francesca’s profiles, as Longhi wrote in the 1934 essay "Officina ferrarese".

Moreover, next to Caravaggio, to Ercole de' Roberti’s panel and to Piero della Francesca’s polyptych, the exhibition displays documents from the archives, the library and the photographic archives of the Foundation Roberto Longhi for Art History Studies.

The exhibition catalogue, published by Marsilio, includes essays by Maria Cristina Bandera and Mina Gregori and an anthology of Roberto Longhi's texts about the exposed works. An effective set up, designed by Corrado Anselmi, enhances the richness of the works exhibited in the museum.

The next exhibition, dedicated to Luca Pacioli tra Piero della Francesca e Leonardo, which will be opened to the public from June, 10th to November, 5th, will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of the great mathematician. Among other masterpieces, a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci - normally hosted in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan - will be exposed, near a painting of his pupil, Giampietrino, granted by the Poldi Pezzoli Museum.

 

Information

Nel segno di Roberto Longhi. PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA E CARAVAGGIO

Museo Civico Sansepolcro, Via Niccolò Aggiunti, 65

 

February 12th – June 4th, 2017

Web site: mostrapieroecaravaggio

Timetable:

February 12th - June 9th: from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2.30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

June 10th - September 17th: from 10 am.. to 1.30 p.m. and from 2.30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

September 18th - November 5th: from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2.30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets:

Full € 10,00

Reduced € 8,50 for groups of at least 10 people, visitors from 19 to 25 years of age, visitors with special agreements

Extra reduced € 4,00 for visitors from 11 to 18 years of age

Free for children below 10 years of age, disabled visitors, credited journalists

Information: Tel. 199 15 11 21

 

Walking through Tuscany, step by step, immersed in beauty. Explore on foot, marveling at nature and spirituality. Let your own steps dictate the pace and time reclaim its space.

 

From Mount Verna to Montecasale

Departure:  Santuario della Verna

Distance:  37 km (23 mi)

Typology: trekking (on foot; by mountain bike)

Difficulty: medium 

Arrive:  Sansepolcro 

 

 

The more well known Franciscan walk which crosses Valtiberina Toscana is without a doubt, the one which begins in Mount Verna and via Pieve Santo Stefano reaches Sansepolcro. For many years now many publications in Italian and other languages have described the walk from Mount Verna – Assisi: all of them highlight how the route Francis took to cross Valtiberina Toscana is characteristic particularly as an ideal place for nature and peace and an ideal walk for those seeking the spiritual.

 

Once you leave the Sanctuary in Verna, the itinerary takes you towards Pieve Santo Stefano, the town which is famous for the Piccolo museo del diario and goes on to the Cerbaiolo Hermitage, ancient Benedictine Monastery, donated to St. Francis and where Franciscan monks settled. After destruction in the 2nd World War it was later rebuilt as we see it today. Access is allowed to the hermitage but it must be with the maximum discretion, respect to spirituality and silence.

 

As you go along the Viamaggio Pass you reach the Montecasale Hermitage, a place that St. Francis particularly loved because of the solitude of the hills that surround it. At the foot of the terrace is a beautiful vegetable garden which is cultivated with passion by the Capuchin monks who live in the monastery.

After a visit to the splendid Renaissance city of Sansepolcro, the walk continues towards Citerna, in Umbria, or, via Anghiari, you can return to Mount Verna along the other direction of the Franciscan walk which crosses Valtiberina Toscana.