With a selection of oil paintings and works on paper from institutions and private collections, the exhibition offers a comprehensive look at the artistic career of the painter from Genoa, Pietro Gaudenzi (1880-1955) among the most popular painters of his time.

From his formative years between La Spezia, Genoa and Rome until he retired, later in life, to the village of Anticoli Corrado, Gaudenzi always remained faithful to a realist figuration, foreign to the formalisms of the avant-garde.
Through the search for a direct comparison with ancient painting, reinterpreted with 20th century sensitivity, Gaudenzi tackled the major themes of tradition in his compositions: portraits, scenes of domestic intimacy, maternity, still life and, more rarely, landscapes. Absolute protagonists of his visual universe are Gaudenzi’s family members: his first wife, Candida Toppi, who died prematurely in 1920, their children and those from his second marriage to his sister-in-law Augusta Toppi. Understandably, the death of the painter’s first wife indelibly marked his life, influencing his production and choice of themes. After 1920, Gaudenzi more frequently explored sacred themes and religious painting.

The appreciation shown to him by the highest offices of state during the twenty-year Fascist period (in 1936 he won the Premio Mussolini, in 1939 he was appointed Accademico d'Italia, in 1940 he won the Premio Cremona, in 1942 the Duce commissioned a portrait of him) cost him to fade inevitably into oblivion after the end of the World War II.
Long forgotten by art-historical literature, despite his wide participation in major exhibitions between the two wars, he is now the focus of the growing interest from scholars: with a monographic slant, articulated through thematic sections, the exhibition is therefore proposed as an initial survey of the painter's work, necessary for a better understanding of his rediscovery.

The Mart presents all works from public and private collections together for the first time, including nine works from the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. Also part of this generous loan are the large Baptism from 1932 and the Portrait of Guido Rossi (1925), one of Gaudenzi's major patrons.

Among the rarities in the exhibition is La mia scuola di Napoli (My School in Naples), a canvas from around 1938, never before exhibited in a public museum. The painting depicts Gaudenzi's studio in the period he was teaching painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples and represents one of his rare nudes.

Divided into five sections devoted respectively to the painting of the affections, sacred art, the Milanese period, and painting technique, the exhibition concludes with a conspicuous display of beautiful, coloured drawings related to the cycle of frescoes for the Castle of the Knights of Rhodes.

 

 

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