A masterpiece in Perugia KLIMT, The three ages
from 28 June to 15 September 2024
National Gallery of Umbria
NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF PERUGIA – REGIONAL DIRECTION OF NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF UMBRIA
in collaboration with
NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART IN ROME
With the exhibition dedicated to Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece, The Three Ages (1905), extraordinarily loaned by the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, a new exhibition cycle of the National Gallery of Umbria is inaugurated: A masterpiece in Perugia .
During the summer the museum offers its public the opportunity to admire and learn in depth about a work of particular importance in the career of a famous artist, which is accompanied by a selection of works by other contemporary authors, with the aim of illustrating the the era of its creation, the historical cultural context and the themes addressed. In the case of Klimt, he will be introduced by Galileo Chini, of whom some drawings, paintings and ceramics inspired by the style of the Viennese master are on display.
At the beginning of the exhibition, you will be able to immerse yourself in Klimt’s world thanks to a virtual room – created with the contribution of the Perugia Foundation – where the artist’s major paintings are illustrated and The three ages, before being able to observe from reality.
The installation designed for the occasion by the National Gallery of Umbria recalls the Austrian pavilion designed by Josef Hofmann for the 1911 Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome and aims to involve visitors in the atmosphere of the time, enriched by listening in the background of the song Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), composed by the Viennese Arnold Schoenberg in the same years in which Klimt was developing The Three Ages.
The three ages
The theme of the three ages recurs often in the history of art, but it focuses above all on man. Giorgione, Titian, Van Dyck, Friedrich are just some of the masters who experiment with this subject, demonstrating their ability to accurately reproduce the physiognomies and bodies of children, young and old, in an attempt to represent the inevitability of time that passes . It is very rare for female subjects to illustrate this destiny, whereas the relationship between young and old in the painting of the past focused on the juxtaposition of the Virgin Mary and Saint Anne.
Klimt approaches this theme from a secular point of view, making it a tribute to the complexity of the female body, which changes appearance over the years, but above all accompanies a different attitude towards life. The three women of this masterpiece also become the metaphor of a civilization, which at the beginning of the twentieth century is leaving behind a classic vision of the world to immerse itself in the anxieties of the twentieth century, prompted by new psychoanalytic studies and increasingly exacerbated political relations . In this problematic vision of history, Klimt debuted with an elegant, complex and extremely innovative style, which would achieve resounding success, still shared by the general public today.
Three female bodies squeezed between two wings of crystalline rain, which falls from a compact black surface. Behind them, signs light up which help to enhance the emotion defined by their appearance. The older woman, helpless, desperate, has a body with a strong volume, which imposes itself with her shadows brought to the height of her belly, back and neck, while she explores the space with her feet painted in perfect perspective. The young mother has an almost two-dimensional body, white, diaphanous, lightened by the absence of feet, but Klimt focuses our attention rather on her face, immersed in blonde hair – like that of Botticelli’s Venus – scattered with flowers they sprout from nuclei that allude to its generating power. She fell asleep with her daughter in her arms, portrayed in a mirror position with respect to the old woman, with whom she closes the circle of life.
Access to the exhibition is included in the entrance ticket to the Gallery, which also allows Fulvio Roiter to visit. Umbria, a love story, and is part of the calendar of La Sottile Linea d’Umbria, the new project of the General Directorate of Museums of the MIC, National Museums of Perugia – Regional Directorate of National Museums of Umbria and of the Umbria Region, with the contribution of the Consultation of the Casse di Risparmio Umbre Foundations and the collaboration of Radio Subasio: the event is also enriched by a single ticket of 15 euros, with which from 15 June for four months, for the first time, it will be possible to visit for approximately four months the fourteen national museums of Umbria.
