The exhibition closed on June 24, now it’s time to take stock. Was it a success? Much more, it was a triumph. Both for the record turnout never recorded before, more than 50 thousand visitors, many of whom returned several times to rediscover the treasures preserved in the Poldi Pezzoli museum in Milan. And, above all, because for the first time ever, the eight surviving panels of a masterpiece by Piero della Francesca, the Augustinian Polyptych, painted by the master of Sansepolcro between 1454 and 1470, have been reassembled. One of the greatest altarpieces in the history of art. For specialized critics, it was the reunion of the century. They arrived in Milan, with unusual speed, from five international museums: four from the Frick Collection in New York, one each from the National Gallery in Washington, the National Gallery in London and the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, the latter with an armed escort because it is a national heritage. A diplomatic masterpiece never achieved before by anyone, woven with unusual skill by the creator of the project, the young director of the Poldi Pezzoli museum Alexandra Fourth. A success that makes us particularly proud. Because Alessandra Quarto is Neapolitan. «Proud to be one», she specifies. «I owe everything I have learned to Naples and Capodimonte, where I learned the trade like I never could have anywhere else».
It’s nice to hear someone recognize the prestige of our school.
«Naples was for me a treasure chest of culture and a training ground for life to which I owe everything. I started in 2002 with a six-month internship with the superintendent Nicola Spinosa. I stayed with him and his team for eleven years. They were the most beautiful, the most profitable, the most interesting of my life. Spinosa was an extraordinary teacher. We were his girls, a great team that did incredible things. With few resources and few staff he managed to create international level events. Caravaggio, Velazquez, the Baroque. I would be nothing without my Neapolitan background».
In just one year of management, she can bring home a result that is almost miraculous, given the time required for bureaucracy.
“Loans are always difficult with such fragile works. I also took advantage of the temporary closure of the Frick Collection for modernization work, so I went to New York and managed to obtain availability that opened the doors of other museums to me. It was a very successful combination.”
Assembling the various pieces in a single exhibition, beyond the obvious media appeal, is it also an opportunity for new discoveries?
«Above all. The mystery of this great artist rediscovered by Roberto Longhi is linked precisely to his astonishing compositional techniques, therefore cutting-edge diagnostic investigations allow us to discover traces, pigments, reuse of materials and other secrets of this mathematical mind that wants to give us back on the table the three-dimensionality of the human figure».
You worked in Brera, then you were superintendent in Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna. Are you thinking of staying at Poldi Pezzoli for a while?
“Here I feel like I’m in the right place. We are only 22 people and we work in perfect harmony. We have achieved great results precisely because we know how to work together. My mandate lasts five years. We’ll see.”
We can already see something. Next stop: the Louvre. Or not?
“We are preparing an exhibition on the Lombard Renaissance at the time of the Sforzas. The Louvre has promised us six masterpieces by Andrea Solario on loan.”
Who is?
“Look, you see, very few people know him, guiltily. Solario is a sublime painter, all to be rediscovered. Called by the French court to serve the Amboise family, influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, author of works of the highest quality. This is the right opportunity to put him back at the center of attention. The Louvre will send us six masterpieces, other loans will come from the National Gallery and the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna. It’s the first time for Solario too.”
Do you ever think about returning to Naples? Its tourist rediscovery calls for quality projects.
“Mass tourism must not transform Naples into a sloppy showcase of banality, with blockbuster exhibitions and decrepit stereotypes. What the people of Sanità have done seems to me an excellent example of popular management of a model.”
Naples is the city of a thousand unrealized projects of as many museums. If you could decide, which museum would you give priority to?
“At the Albergo dei Poveri, an extraordinary structure that should become the Citadel of Culture. It has enough space to contain the history of the city, with laboratories and external collaborations with institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts, photography schools, theater and cinema laboratories. It seems like a winning idea to me.”
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