A ribbon-cutting ceremony for May in Rovigo that couldn’t be more international, given that everything started in New Yorkfrom the Institute of American Culture, where the director Fabio Finotti and the president of the Lions Club Rovigo Host Ruggero Zambon connected via videoconference with the Urban digital center, in a virtual embrace across the ocean in the name of Xanto Avelli, with a conference on the ceramist and poet from Rovigo.
The initial greeting was on the American side, from Professor Finotti: “The Italian Cultural Institute in New York – he explained – has tried in recent years to highlight how artisan culture is not detached from the artistic dimension. Avelli is the emblem of this relationship between art and craftsmanship. For him, not only shape and color were important, but also the idea, that of the return of the ancient myth. His works were made to live daily in homes. This aspect is important, because we are often led to believe that design is twentieth-century, but instead it is an invention of the Renaissance. Avelli, but also artists such as Michelangelo and Cellini, with their great works on the one hand and on the other also salt shakers, plates, amphorae, i.e. Renaissance furnishings, combined great architecture with forms of everyday life”.
At the meeting, moderated by Isabella Sgarbi, first vice-president of the Rovigo Host Lions Club, who read a message from the president of the Rovigo Cultura Foundation Elena Busson, the president of the Banca Del Monte Foundation Giorgio Lazzarini brought his greetings, who in addition to “thanking the Italian Cultural Institute of New York for the attention it wanted dedicate to this artist of ours from Rovigo”, recalled the commitment of the Foundation itself in the rediscovery of Avelli: “In 2007, having learned of an exhibition on Xantho in London, at the Wallace Collection, she decided to publish the Italian edition of the catalog and present it in Rovigo. The event aroused enough interest to promote the purchase of a work, thanks to the commitment of the Foundation and the collaboration of other bodies, the Ero and Leandro plate, which is now on display at the Museum of the Great Rivers”.
From New York, Zambon thanked Professor Finotti for the “physical” hospitality, here at the Italian Institute of Culture, and virtual on their Youtube channel, which gives us the opportunity to present Xanto Avelli to an international audience, 16 years after the first international exhibition in London which brought him to the world stage”. Returning to Rovigo, the president of the Province Enrico Ferrarese, bringing his greetings, underlined how Avelli was an “artist from Rovigo and proud of being such, the mark in his works leaves no doubt”. The president of the Accademia dei Concordi Pier Luigi Bagatin recalled how, “Maggio did well to start in a big way with Xanto Avelli, who is part of the very small circle of Polesine artists who have gained international fame, together with Canozi da Lendinara, masters of carving, and Mario Cavalieri, painter of international level, with his way of feeling colour”.
After a theatrical reading by Letizia Piva and Paolo Rossi of Minimiteatri of the story of Hero and Leandro, the professor, journalist and art historian Micol Andreasi held a reflection entitled “At the tip of the brush and pen: Xanto Avelli from Rovigo maiolicaro and writer”, combining various works by Avelli and crossing sources of the time, such as the works of Petrarca and historical events. The art historian and essayist Valentina Lapierre instead read a report on “Ceramic production in Ferrara at the time of Xanto Avelli”, because it is believed that Ferrara was one of the first stops on his wanderings after the upheavals that affected Rovigo, which passed from the Este family to Venice and was hit by plague and floods. Professor Anna Cerboni Baiardi of the University of Urbino then addressed the topic “Xanto ‘maiolica worker’ at the court of Urbino”, recalling how Avelli, a “painter devoted to majolica”, was a central figure of Urbino culture.
In closing, Elisabetta Lorenzetti, president of the Polesine Development Foundation, which promotes the Maggio Rodigo, expressed her satisfaction with the important opening moment, thanking everyone and, in particular, the artistic director Zoe Pia.
