The Vincenzo Foppa exhibition opens on September 30th, 2022 at the Rocca di San Giorgio in Orzinuovi.

The Banner of Orzinuovi, curated by Roberto Consolandi, conceived around the main work, the precious Banner, front and back in tempera and oil on canvas, one of the fundamental works of Vincenzo Foppa's evolution. An opportunity to remember and rediscover the personality of this artist, mentor and "protagonist" of the Lombard Renaissance.

Owned by the Parish of Santa Maria Assunta in Orzinuovi (Brescia) and in storage at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia, the Orzinuovi Banner returns to its original location after 113 years. The initiative aims to make a contribution to the collective drive towards beauty in the post-pandemic period. In fact, the Banner has much in common with the pandemic: the work was commissioned in 1514 to the Brescia artist Vincenzo Foppa, (1427/1430 - 1515/1516), to eradicate and exorcise a very hard plague that broke out after the Sack of Brescia, between 1512 and 1513, which had killed a considerable number of the inhabitants of Orzinuovi.

The exhibition, organized by the Municipality and the Parish of Orzinuovi (Brescia), avails itself of the participation of the Brescia Museums Foundation with the patronage and collaboration of the Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage of the Diocesi of Brescia and the Municipality of Brescia, with a specially constituted scientific committee. It is supported by the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the contribution of the Lombardy Region, the Province of Brescia, the Municipality of Bergamo, in addition to the collaboration of the Municipality of Tione di Trento, the Pastoral Territory of Tione, Confartigianato Brescia and Eastern Lombardy, Confagricoltura Brescia, Oglio Nord Park, Terre Basse Association and territorial partners.

 

The exhibition is divided into five sections: The power of the image; The energy of matter; The strength of the soul; Desire for memory. To forget to be reborn; The enchantment of Grace.

 

A corpus of 33 works including other works by Foppa, a Crucifixion, a Madonna and Child between St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, a Cicerone Leggente (in lightbox), and a John the Baptist as well as a drawing by Andrea Mantegna, the Burial of Christ (in lightbox). The itinerary is completed by several drawings by Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle, some sesterces from the imperial era, paintings, Renaissance artifacts, a rare fragment of a Holbein motif carpet, as well as wooden sculptures by Andrea and Maffeo Olivieri.

The Banner is made up of a recto representing the Madonna and Child among the SS. Caterina d’Alessandria and Bernardino da Siena, and a verse with San Sebastiano between Ss. Giorgio and Rocco.

 

The curator says: "The re-enactment of a pestilence and a war still in progress are clear, but with this exhibition we want to affirm the 'perspective magisterium' and the invention of the architectural spatiality of the greatest artist of the Brescia Renaissance, and not only the value of realism in his silvery gray painting".

 

As evidence of Foppa's profound culture and knowledge of fashion, which inspires many elements of the clothes that cover the protagonists of his works, the exhibition is complemented by an exhibition of precious clothes made by the Lisio Silk Art Foundation in Florence, which faithfully reproduce models of the sixteenth century.

 

The exhibition is accompanied by a short film dedicated to Vincenzo Foppa, directed by Rosamaria Montalbano with the concept and direction of Roberto Consolandi.

 

The initiative also aims to promote knowledge of the area for the visiting public: the natural beauty of the landscape, the ancient houses, the man-made environment, the eco-sustainable tourism of this Lombard area.