Since the ancient times in all cultures and religions – in the classical Western as well as in the Eastern world – Adoration is a ceremony by which Man expresses reverence and respect for a God and his manifestations.

As such Adoration represents a fundamental moment in the relationship with the Divine that Man feels the need to remember and portray. This explains the important and significant role of this theme in the Art History – especially the Western Art – since the first centuries of our Era.

The recurring presence of this subject in European artistic production was undoubtedly promoted and supported by Christianity, which ensured its wide diffusion and success through two famous iconographies: the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Three Wise Men.

 

 

The astonishment and veneration triggered by the extraordinary event of the birth of Christ justifies the urgency of depicting His first days of life for commemorative and devotional purposes. Those two moments, not very distant in time from each other but equally important, will thus be artistically so recurrent that, with rare exceptions, almost all painters and sculptors of the past depicted the theme of Adoration sooner or later along their careers.

This exhibition was born from the idea of comparing a few but significant artworks testifying the large fortune that Adorations have enjoyed over the centuries through countless interpretations, using the most different materials and artistic techniques.

As of a famous woodcut by Albrecht Dürer from 1503 depicting the Adoration of the Magi and a rare damascened iron Milanese Plaquette from 16th century on the same subject, the exhibition essentially focuses on a number of late Baroque Italian works – all linked by the circumstance of having been commissioned by noble families for their private devotion. Among the works on display two of those are particularly important: a large and outstanding terracotta high relief, attributed to the Florentine sculptor Girolamo Ticciati, and a fascinating and richly coloured wax scene, attributed to the Sicilian artist Giovanni Rosselli.

 

 

If one of the peculiarities of Baroque and late Baroque Art lies in the  well known dramatic and theatrical tones of the representation, emphasised through the use of light, contrasts and gestures – both in painting and sculpture – there is no doubt that the theme of Adoration is among those where that emphasis can be expressed to the utmost, in a visual experience that deeply involves the observer, often arousing strong emotions.

The pathos triggered by observing an Adoration has certainly been a decisive element in the artistic dissemination and popularity of this theme, which this exhibition has wished to re-propose – in a contemporary key – with the hope that the works exhibited will once again be able to emotionally involve and surprise the eye and mind of the observer.

 

 

ADORATIONS – Small Theatres of Private Devotion

December 6 – 24 2024

Tuesday – Saturday

10 – 18

Via San Giovanni sul Muro 3, Milan