CLUSONE (Bergamo)
An exhibition on the artisan workshop of the past, which makes you reflect on the importance of these places for art, enhancing a dimension, that of the art and artisan workshops, which is disappearing and with it also a wealth of knowledge. The exhibition “La Bottega Nani“ set up in the Museum of the Basilica of Clusone is dedicated to the history of one of the largest workshops in the Bergamo area, that of the Nani family of Clusone, artists who were chiselers, embossers, sculptors and restorers, over 150 years of activity. The exhibition, which brings together 70 works that can be visited until November 3 and is curated by the museum committee, tells the story of the activity of the Bergamo family whose Clusone workshop was located right in the heart of the town in the Seriana Valley, in Piazza S. Anna, before moving to Bergamo (1926), in Via Torretta, where it became a meeting point for artists of the time, from Coter to Galizzi and Manzù, for example. The exhibition hosts works by Abramo Nani (1857-1936), Attilio “Tilio“ Nani (1901-1959), up to those of his sons Claudio, Cesare. Giuseppe and finally those of the living heirs Attlio Nani (son of Cesare) who now continues the activity in the Nani workshop in Bergamo. At the entrance to the museum you are greeted by a first sculpture by Tilio Nani, an angel in drawn and chiseled silver. In the entrance there is also the work donated in recent days by Attilio Nani to the museum, a bronze tondo depicting the expulsion of Lucifer from Eden and then a large crucified Christ by Claudio Nani. The first two rooms of the museum are dedicated to the presentation of the workshop, with the exhibition of some works by Abramo Nani, including a small tabernacle door from the church of Paradiso in Clusone. It is Abramo who started the first works of cleaning, restoration and silvering of sacred and profane objects in the workshop of his father and uncle. Michele Andreucci
