Ken Munsie: June 2014

Saturday, June 28, 2014

140. ... National Gallery of Modern Art ... #2 ...

In my last posting - #139 - I took you on a wander through this beautiful Gallery and showed just a handful of the 18th and 19th century paintings hanging on the walls in the 75 rooms within the complex ... today, here are the sculptures that caught my eye ...

The floor of the Gallery foyer is paved with cracked mirror tiles

Passi ( Steps ) - Alfredo Perri - 2011

The only show of rust in the Gallery ...

Officina solare n.2 - Ettore Colla - 1965

Il Dormiente - Arturo Martini - 1921

Ritratto del pittore Vincenzo Constantini - Roberto Melli - 1913

Ritratto della Principessa - Paolo Troubetzkoy - 1921

Iris fiorentina - Raffaello Romanelli - 1900

Busto de Garibaldi - Ercole Rosa - 1875

Atte - Adolfo Wildt - 1892

La Vecchia - Ivan Mestrovic - 1906

Congiunti al di la - Paul Albert Bartholome - 1891

Farinata degli Uberti - Carlo Fontana - 1901

L'umanita contro il male - Gaetano Cellini - 1908

... detail ...

Nudo - Carlo De Veroli - 1938

Figura seduta - Emilio Greco - 1949

Abbandono - Gino Colognesi - 1941

Ippolita - Giuseppe Mazzullo - 1969

Venus - Man Ray - 1937

La Natura - Giuseppe Mazzullo - 1961

Figura - Carmelo Cappello - 1946

Ritratto de Pupa - Assen Peikov - 1963

La vedova - Ernesto Bazzaro - 1888

Ercole e Lica - Antonio Canova - 1815

... In Greek mythology, Hercules kills the Centaur Nessus with one of his poison arrows for trying to violate his beloved Deianeira. In a powerful story about the unintended effects of karma, Nessus tells Deianeira as he is dying to preserve the blood from his wound, for anyone wearing a garment rubbed with it would love her forever. Later, when Deianeira finds Hercules' affections drifting to Iole, daughter of King Eurytus, she sends him a garment smeared with Nassus' blood. Upon putting on the garment, Hercules realizes his fate and kills the messenger, Lycus, who was the innocent bearer of the death-garment ( by throwing him out to sea ... ) ...

... detail ...

Psiche svenuta - Pietro Tenerani - 1869

Saffo - Giovanni Dupre - 1857

... detail ...

Nello della Pietra e Pia - Alfonso Balzico - 1868

Cleopatra - Alfonso Balzico - 1850

... detail ...

Alessandro Magno - Vincenzo Gemito - 1920

Ritratto del conte Guelfo - Lorenzo Bartolini - 1830

Nettuno - Rinaldo Rinaldi - 1844

Apollo - Pietro Galli - 1838

Idealita e materialisimo - Giulio Monteverde - 1911

Sulia linea del tempo - Mara Celani - 1959

Another exciting gallery explored on my wanderings ...

Friday, June 27, 2014

139. ... National Gallery of Modern Art - #1 ...

Needing a fix of contemporary art - after so much over-whelming Renaissance beauty - I hunted down the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna ... this great gallery - established in 1883 - features Italian artworks from the 19th and 20th centuries ( plus a few other European works thrown in for good measure ... ) - and includes my favourite art-era, the Romantic period of the first half of the 1800's. There is also a wonderful collection of contemporary artworks from the second half of the 1900's.

In this first blog posting I will show you just a few of my favourite paintings featured in the 75 roomed gallery, and then in blog #140 I'll treat you to some of the beautiful sculptural works.

Most of the identifying labels etc were in Italian of course - I'll leave it up to you to work out the translations ...

The floor of the main foyer is covered with cracked mirror tiles -

Passi ( Steps ) - Alfredo Pirri - 2011

Quite a stunning effect - but rather weird to walk over - and it was interesting watching other gallery visitors as they cautiously made their way across the room ...