There is a lot of Puglia in that authentic time machine, which is taking shape with the exhibition «G7: Seven centuries of Italian art» being set up in the Norman-Swabian Castle of Mesagne.
The event, organized by the Puglia Micexperience business network, sees the patronage of the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Mesagne, the Taranto-Brindisi Chamber of Commerce and Puglia Airports and the collaboration between the General Directorate of Museums, the Regional Directorate of Puglia Museums, organizations of the Ministry of Culture, and the Municipality of Mesagne, leader of entities such as the Micexperience Business Network and the Puglia Region, in compliance with the “Puglia Walking Art” Memorandum of Understanding.
Organized by the Puglia Micexperience business network – which also successfully proposed the exhibition events «Picasso, the other half of the sky» (2018), «Andy Warhol, the alchemist of the sixties» (2019) in the Mesagne Castle , «The 20th century from Modigliani to Obey», (2021) and again «Caravaggio and his time» (2023) and the biennial festival «Culturare» – the exhibition is the key cultural event of the Apulian summer 2024, which takes starting during the G7 days in Borgo Egnazia and will close its doors on the following 30th November. It enjoys the scientific care of prof. Pierluigi Carofano and will be inaugurated on June 13th, offering a vast and varied audience the possibility of covering 7 centuries of Italian art with effectiveness and wealth of analysis.
And “so much Puglia” is not only verifiable because the chronological path opens with the school of Nicola Pisano – who according to numerous scholars was born in Puglia at the beginning of the 13th century – and ends with the artistic experience of Pino Pascali (1935-1968) , to which the Prada Foundation is dedicating a retrospective in Milan in recent weeks, but also because several Apulian institutions have joined the Puglia Micexperience initiative, allowing the exhibition of works of art from their collection.
This is the case of the National Gallery of Puglia «Girolamo e Rosaria Devanna» of Bitonto, of the «Giuseppe De Nittis» Art Gallery of Barletta, of the Provincial Art Gallery of Bari. From the Devanna collection, which includes 354 works including paintings, drawings and sketches dating back to the 16th century to the twentieth century, the «Portrait of a Gentleman» by Tiziano Vecellio (1488/1490 – 1576) and the «Farewell of Christ from his Mother» by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582 – Rome 1647) will be on display in Mesagne. From the «Giuseppe De Nittis» art gallery in Barletta, the «Bust of a woman» and «Dans le monde» by the highly esteemed artist from Barletta (1846-1884) will also come. From the provincial art gallery of Bari, dedicated to Corrado Giaquinto (1703-1766), the «Diomede» by the painter from Molfetta and the «Philosopher» by Francesco Fracanzano (1605-1651) will be exhibited in Mesagne.
Finally, the Pino Pascali Foundation of Polignano a Mare has not yet made the loans official, while recent news is that the exhibition organization is willing to study Titian’s “Portrait of a Gentleman” from the Devanna collection in more depth.
