MILAN.- Symbolism. European Art from the Belle Époque to the Great War is a major exhibition and part of a special programme by Palazzo Reale dedicated to art between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; this includes the recently opened exhibition Alphonse Mucha and the Art Nouveau Atmospheres (to 20 March 2016).

Promoted by the City of Milano-Cultura and produced by Palazzo Reale, 24 ORE Cultura – Gruppo 24 ORE and Arthemisia Group, the exhibition is curated by Fernando Mazzocca and Claudia Zevi in collaboration with Michel Draguet.

As Filippo del Corno, Councillor for Culture, put it: “Palazzo Reale’s first major exhibition of 2016 is dedicated to one of the artistic movements that marked the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries, a period that transcended the objective representation of reality to achieve a more intimate and subjective dimension of the real”. Del Corno continues: “These fascinating works of stunning beauty will accompany the visitors to the show, leading them along a path filled with the marvellous creations made by artists who chose to embrace the Symbolist movement”.

With over 2,000 square metres of exhibition surface area and 24 rooms located on the piano nobile of Palazzo Reale in Milan, for the first time ever Symbolism. European Art from the Belle Époque to the Great War compares the Italian Symbolists with those from other countries. The comparison takes place in one hundred paintings, sculptures, and an exceptional selection of prints, representing some of Symbolism’s most interesting output, and hailing from major Italian and European museums as well as private collections.

The exhibition, in addition to allowing for an in-depth and up-to-date study of the period, with the publication of specialized essays in the catalogue released by 24 ORE Cultura, has also made possible the restoration, cleaning, and maintenance of over ten works from Ca’ Pesaro di Venezia, of Arnold Böcklin’s Self-Portrait, from the Galleria degli Uffizi di Firenze, of the frames in Gaetano Previati’s The Eroica, from the Associazione Nazionale Mutilati e Invalidi di Guerra, as well as of Giulio Aristide Sartorio’s polyptych Wise Virgins and Foolish Virgins, owned by the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna in Rome. The operation is an important one, which shows how temporary exhibitions, besides valorizing the works, can also offer an opportunity to participate actively in the preservation of Italy’s artistic heritage thanks to the funding that derives from them.

Symbolism was both a moment of closure to progress and to a society dominated by the predominance of quantity, and a period of openness aimed at the affirmation of modernity that, inspired by the poetry of Baudelaire, made resistance to modernity its distinguishing feature. Emblematic of the fall and failure, The Flowers of Evil are the point of departure of a cultural period that is, first and foremost, defined by repudiation: the refusal of the real reduced to mere intuitive perception, the disapproval of academicism, the declination of naturalism and verismo. This long list of rejections seems to define Symbolism as the ultimate answer to the threefold frustrations of modern man: frustration generated, historically, by Copernicus (Man is no longer the centre of the universe), Darwin (Man is not the accomplishment of evolution), and Freud (Man is incapable, by nature, of dominating his inner drives).

From a figurative point of view, there is a recovery of the images of that “paradise lost” identified in the painting of the Italian primitives and, in general, of the original myths. Literature is the great go-between in this revolution of imagery, where the theme of the dream, of opiate-induced delirium, of madness seems to unify the European culture that will be revolutionized by Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, published in Vienna in 1900.

What stems from this is a recovery of the dream-like dimension, the heroic world of mythology, scandalous themes such as erotic love, death, and sin.

The exhibition presents, for the first time ever in Italy, some of the most significant masterpieces of European Symbolism: first, visitors can view some of the icons of the Symbolist idea of the world: Caresses (The Art of) featuring the amazing cheetah-woman by Fernand Khnopff, and the Head of Orpheus floating on water by Jean Delville, both works from the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels; the large-scale, sublime work by Ferdinand Hodler entitled The Chosen One, from the Osthaus Museum in Hagen, and The Silence of the Forest by Arnold Böcklin, from the National Gallery of Poznan. These works are being shown for the first time ever in Italy, and they are already raising the expectations of both the public and the critics.

One of the most scenographic sections of the exhibition includes the rooms dedicated to the 1907 Biennale: an extraordinary window from which to view the most progressive Italian art, which also evolved thanks to the influence of the great exhibitions of the Berlin and Vienna Secessions. Giulio Aristide Sartorio’s work is visible in the pictorial cycle The Epic Poem of Human Life, realized for the 1907 Biennale. That was the same event that witnessed the installation of the famous Sala dell'Arte del Sogno (Room of the Art of the Dream), officially consecrating Symbolism in Italy. Sartorio’s cycle is accompanied by the sound installation by Vincenza artist Alberto Tadiello, whose intervention – the incipit of a musical composition played over and over again in a staggered manner – creates a new experience of artistic enjoyment.

Across 18 theme-based sections, the exhibition unfolds amidst dream-like atmospheres and dimensions: accompanied by the poems of Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil, visitors can admire the Satanic representations by Odilon Redon, the portrayals of myths by Gustave Moreau, the vitalism of Ferdinand Hodler, the colourism of the Nabis artists. Giovanni Segantini’s interpretations of love, Gaetano Previati’s Divisionist imaginary, and the magic of Galileo Chini’s decoration bear witness, among other things, to the importance of the Symbolist movement in Italy , and also enable us to become acquainted with less-known names: Luigi Bonazza, an Italian follower of Klimt, Leo Putz, Giorgio Kienerk, and the sculptors Leonardo Bistolfi and Amleto Cataldi. The exhibition ends with the fantastic atmosphere immersing viewers in the One Thousand and One Nights, the decorative cycle made by Zecchin on the eve of the Great War.