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EXCELLENT EXHIBITIONS

:AND THERE WAS LIGH-Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphal

The Masters of Renaissance, seen in a New Light

Edited by Francesco Buranelli Alessandro Vezzosi

<<L'ERMA> di BRETSCHNEIDER

UNDERTHE PATRONAGE OF

His Excellency Giorgio Napolitano President of the Italian Republic

His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone Secretary of State of His Holyness

and There Was Light Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael The Masters of Renaissance, seen in a New Light

20 March - 15 August 2010 Eriksbergshallen Göteborg - Sweden

HONOUR COMMETrEE

PRESIDENT

Hon. Silvio Berlusconi Prime Minister of the Italian Republic

MEMBERS

Hon. Franco Frattini Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy

Hon. Claudio Scajola Minister of Economic Development, Italy

Hon. Sandro Bondi Minister of Cultural Heritage, Italy

His Eminence Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State

His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Comastri President of the Fabric of Saint Peter

His Eminence Cardinal Raffaele Farina Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church

His Excellency Mons. Fernando Filoni Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State

His Excellency Mons. Dominique Mamberti Secretary for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State

His Excellency Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi President of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church

His Excellency Mons. Carlo Maria ViganO General Secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican City State

His Excellency Emil Paul Tscherrig Apostolic Nuncio to Sweden

Her Excellency Anna della Croce Brigante Colon na Ambassador of the Italian Republic to Sweden

His Excellency Mons. Anders Arborelius O.C.D. Bishop of Stockholm

P. Ab. Michael John Zielinski, OSB Oliv. Vice-president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church

Mr. Gianni Letta Undersecretary at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers

Mr. Mario Resca Director General, Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

PRESIDENTS

Francesco Buranelli Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church

Alessandro Vezzosi Director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci

MEMBERS

Maurizio Calvesi Academician of the Lincei, Italy

Roberto Cecchi General Secretary of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities

Mons. José Manuel Del Rio Carrasco Undersecretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church

Maurizio Fallace General Director of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities

Antonia Ida Fontana Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Cen trale, Florence

Carlo Pedretti Director of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies - University of California at Los Angeles

Annalisa PerissaTorrini Director of the Department of Drawings of the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Claudio Massimo Strinati General Directing, Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities

Pina Ragionieri Director of the Casa Buonarroti, Florence

Rossella Vodret Superintendent of Rome's Museums

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Mats Ronngard Managing Director Excellent Exhibitions

Staffan Peters Finance Director Excellent Exhibitions

Roberto Marcucci Coordination and International Relations

EXHIBITION CURATORS

Francesco Buranelli Alessandro Vezzosi

Agnese Sabato Assistant Curator

LENDERS CATALOGUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Accademia Raffaello, Urbino Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Florence Carlo Palli Collection, Prato Casa Buonarroti, Florence Collection of the artist Aurelio Amendola Collection of the artist Jean Margat Collection of the artist Mario Ceroli Collection of the artist Yang Maoyuan Comune di Borgo Sansepolcro Credito Valtellinese Collection Fondazione Pistoletto - Cittadellarte, Biella Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Museo Cassioli, Asciano Museo di San Marco, Florence Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci, Vinci Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence Peter and Kathleen Silverman Collection Provincia di Massa Carrara Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich The Pedretti Foundation, Los Angeles

Editors Francesco Buranelli Alessandro Vezzosi

Essays by

Francesco Buranelli Marco Bussagli Sergio Guarino Carlo Pedretti Pina Ragionieri Claudio Massimo Strinati Alessandro Vezzosi

Entries by Excellent Exhibition (E.E.) Nathalie Guttmann Luciano Massari Carlo Pedretti Annalisa Perissa Torrini Paola Pirolo Pina Ragionieri Agnese Sabato (A.S.) Giovanni Serafini Isabella Truci Nicholas Turner Alessandro Vezzosi (A.V.) Flavia Zisa

Assistant Curator Agnese Sabato with the collaboration of Laura Correggioli

Translations by Scriptum, Rome: Sergio Knipe, Susan Ann White, Paul Metcalfe, Felicity Lutz, Catherine Bolton

The:And there was lightteam would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who made this exhibition possible. Especially we would like to thank Göteborg & CO for strong support and enthusiasm. The City of Goteborg and the Department for Culture affairs for all official contacts. Groom for the excellent layout and production. Roccia for all great projectmanagement, design and marketing. Overseas trading for all the complicated logistics. Our employes who did the impossible possible with great enthusiasm and power.

Ministry for Cultural Heritage, Rome Soprintendenze Speciali and Poli Museali of Florence, Milan and Venice Soprintendenze of Arezzo, Lucca, Siena, Urbino

Cristina Acidini, Cecilia Alessi, Osvaldo Angeli, Elisabetta Archi, Marina Babboni, Sandrina Bandera, Mariangela Betti, Caterina Bon Valsassina, Giulio Bora, Gabriele Borghini, Mons. Franco Buzzi, Giorgio Cerboni Baiardi, Aldo Cicinelli, Morena Costantini, Francesca de Luca, Piera Del Giudice, Marzia Faietti, Marcella Flenghi, Elena Fontana, Roberto Fontanari, Paolo Galluzzi, Maria Pia Ghignoni, Andrea Gulizia, Alba Macripô, Guglielmo M. Malchiodi, Marino Marini, Silvia Marra, Fabio Mazzieri, Cristina Mirandola, Antonio Natali, Marco Navoni, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, Antonio Paolucci, Susanna Pelle, Roberto Pianigiani, Carla Pinzauti, Franco Polcri, Antonella Poleggi, Sandra Rossi, Magnolia Scudieri, Angelo Tartuferi, Maria Grazia Vaccari, Agnese Vasta no

Special thanks to: Giunti Editore, Florence, for lending the Leonardo editions Baron Hans Ernst Weidinger

and to: Franco Barattini, Armando Bartolini, Massimo Banelli, Riccardo Braccialini, Giammarco Cappuzzo, Francesco Cianchi, Rosselia Corcione, Pascal Cotte, Rosanna Di Pinto, Lucy de Fazio, Franco Fossi, Alessia Francescangeli, Fernando Gianesini, Laura Gianesini, Mara Guglielmi, Michele Kostov, Francesca Lai, Claire Margat, Catherine Simon Marion, Luciano Massari, Rossanna Pedretti, Jean Pennicaut, Filippo Petrignani, Maurizio Pinto, Stefano Pinzauti, Sonia Puccetti, Michael Roth, Francois Saint Bris, Marta Salvatici, Maurizio Seracini, Lapo Sergi, Maria Teresa Telara, Francesco Tempesta, Chiara Veronese, Babette Von Dohnanyi and all those who have collaborated on the exhibition and the catalogue.

© PHOTOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Accademia Raffaello, Urbino

Antonio Quattrone, Florence

Archivio Fotografico Musei Vaticani, Vatican

Archivio Leonardismi, Archivio

Impronte Digitali - Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci, Vinci

Archivio Scala, Florence

BNCF, Florence

Casa Buonarroti, Florence

De Agostini, Novara

Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Carlo Gianni, Prato

Kalpa Group, Epalinges

Lumiere Technology, Paris

Maurizio Seracini - Editech, Florence

Museo Cassioli, Asciano

Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples

Palazzo delle Laudi, Sansepolcro

Peter and Kathleen, Silverman Collection

Photothek Staatliche Graphische Sammiung, München

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Photographic Service, Brusselles

"Stvdivm Faesvlanvm"

Research Centre, Wien

Strumenti-memoria del territorio, Vinci

The Pedretti Foundation, Los Angeles

The photographic reproductions from the BNCF and the Superintendences have been used with the permission of the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities. Any further reproduction or duplication with any technique is expressly prohibited.

Special Superintendency of Historical, Artistic, Ethnic and Anthropological Heritage, Venice Museums and the Municipalities of Venice Lagoon Area Courtesy of Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities / Special Superintendency of Historical, Artistic, Ethnic and Anthropological Heritage of Naples / BNCF: Fig. 7: p. 159, fig. 8:

p. 160, fig. 10: p. 163, fig. 11: p. 165 / Special Superintendency of Historical, Artistic, Ethnic and Anthropological Heritage and of Florence Museums Photographic Department

© Scala Archives:

© 2010. Photo Scala, Florence: fig. 1, p. 1; fig. 8, p. 5; fig. 19,p. 14; fig. 6, p.83; fig. 7, p. 84; fig. 8, p. 85; fig. 11, p. 7; fig. 4, p. 25; fig. 1,p.22. © 2010. Photo Scala, Florence - courtesy of Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities: fig. 14, p. 171; fig. 12, p.8; figs. 2-3, p. 2; fig. 6, p. 27; fig. 4, p. 3; fig. 4, p. 148; fig. 16-17, p.1 1;fig. 15, p.10; fig. 14, p. 9; figs. 2-3, p. 24; fig. 6, p. 4; fig. 9, p. 5; fig. 18, p. 180; fig. 20, p. 185; fig. 5, p.3. Private Coil. © 2010. Photo Scala, Florence: figs. 54-55, p. 245. © 2010. Photo Art Media /Heritage Images/Scala, Florence: fig. 10, p. 6. © 2010. National Gallery, London/Scala, Florence: fig. 5, p. 149. © 2010. Photo Scala, Florence/V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London: fig. 5, p. 82. © 2010. White Images/Scala, Florence: fig. 3, p. 146.

© Carlo Pedretti, Agnese Sabato, Alessandro Vezzosi for their respective essays.

Copyright holders may contact the publisher regarding any unidentified photographic sources

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<<L'ERMAx' di BRETSCHN EIDER

Roberto Marcucci Elena Montani

Massimo Banelli Valentina Barroccu Francesco Cagliuso

Rita Censi Rossella Corcione

Alessia Erancescangeli Michele Kostov

Sergio Lozzi Daniele Maras Caterina Pazzi

Erik Pender Maurizio Pinto

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© Copyright 2010 <<L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER

Via Cassiodoro, 19- 00193 Rome (Italy) website: www.Ierma.it - e-mail: edizioni@lerma.it

All right reserved. The reproduction of the test or illustrations without written

permission from the editor is strictly forbidden.

AND THERE WAS LIGHT: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: the masters of Renaissance seen in a new light / a cura di Francesco Buranelli, Alessandro Vezzosi. - Roma: L'ERMAx' di BRETSCHN EIDER, 2010.- 276 p.: ill.; 28 cm. ISBN 978-88-8265-565-5

CDD21. 709.45

1.Leonardo: da Vinci - Esposizioni - 2010 2.Buonarroti, Michelangelo - Esposizioni -2010 3.Raffaello Sanzio - Esposizioni - 2010 4.Arte italiana - Sec. 15.-16. - Esposizioni -2010 5.Rinascimento - Italia - Esposizioni - 2010

I. Buranelli, Francesco II. Vezzosi, Alessandro

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Table of contents

PREFACE

• THEY TAUGHT THE WORLD" by Francesco Buran el/i ........................................................................

THE RENAISSANCE, A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE by C/audio Strinati ..................................................

RIVALS IN THE FLORENCE OF THE MEDICI AND OF THE REPUBLIC by Alessandro Vezzosi

IN MILAN UNDER THE SFORZA FAMILY AND THE FRENCH by Carlo Pedretti.............................

THE ROME OF THE POPES (1503-1541) by Sergio Guarino .........................................................

THE LIVES OF THE THREE LEADING FIGURES ...................................................................................................

LEONARDO by Agnese Sabato and Alessandro Vezzosi.................................................................

LEONARDOAND SCANDINAVIA .....................................................................................................................................

MICHELANGELO by Pina Ragionieri ...................................................................................................................

CASABUONARROTI ..............................................................................................................................................................

RAPHAEL by Marco Bussagli ...................................................................................................................................

ANCIENTWORKS ON DISPLAY.....................................................................................................................................

CONTEMPORARY RENAISSANCE AND AVANT-GARDES by Alessandro Vezzosi .....................

CONTEMPORARY WORKS ON DISPLAY ................................................................................................................

MODELSAND MULTIMEDIA ........................................................................................................................................

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At the same moment that 'And There Was Light' opens its doors something else draws to a close. The journey that included the planning, preparation and design of the exhibition is now concluded. A wholly different journey now commences.

When, at the time of writing, we wait to turn the last pages of the calendar so that the exhibition can open, it feels natural to take this opportunity to thank everyone who, in one way or another, has contributed to the implementation of the project. There are many of you who made this journey together with us and it is very much due to your encouragement and knowledge, commitment and enthusiasm that we have finally reached our destination.

We particularly appreciate the fact that you have not only contributed your professional knowledge. You have also offered something of yourselves and thereby have delivered warmth, optimism and a great spirit to the project. There are many bands of friendship that have been tied in the course of this journey.

It is also true that we have had to change course at times, raise our standards and define that distant horizon again. Large cultural projects are never carried out without surmounting obstacles en route. On more than one occasion, however, we have experienced how incredibly strengthening and enriching it is to overcome these obstacles and thereby move forward.

All those who have participated cannot unfortunately be mentioned in the little space here. However, we wish to offer special thanks to the following whose input has been essential for bringing this exhibition to life.

Firstly, we must mention our own families who have lived with our dreams and plans over several years and who have supported us fervently throughout the entire project.

The City of Goteborg that embraced the exhibition from the outset and has really helped us to bring it into being.

The exhibition's artistic director Alessandro Vezzosi, scientific director Francesco Buranelli and publisher Roberto Marcucci who have contributed their priceless knowledge, an impressive network of contacts and many good ideas.

All the museums, institutions and art collectors who have generously loaned paintings, sketches, sculptures and manuscripts. And, last but not least, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael who got everything started a long time ago now!

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Francesco Buranelli

—...they taU lithe wor 1 There was a time in European history when the devastation caused by wars of attrition, never-ending famines, atrocious plagues and violent so-cial conflicts was eclipsed by artistic conquests of such perfection and impact that they virtually have no equal in modern history.

1. View of the city of Pienza with Palazzo Piccoomini and the square in front.

Europe in general, and Italy in particular, expe-rienced an age that lasted more than 150 years and saw a contemporaneous and vigorous flourishing of painters, sculptors, architects, poets, scientists and musicians in ways, and numbers, that were so astonishing, it was con-sidered, even then, the rebirth of Man's creative energy, in other words, the Renaissance.

Today, scholars prefer to speak of Renais-sances, since the manifestations of this power-ful impulse that drove intellectuals and artists to seek the very roots of humanity were many and varied.

Later, when this extraordinary cultural move-ment reached its height, there was a period dur-ing which an exceptional burgeoning of genius

F -

found its natural humus in Italy, even though the country was experiencing, at the political level, the troubled transition from the free Communes

nomic level, the recovery that took place in Eu-rope between the end of the 14th and the begin-fling of the 15th century was more rapid and pro-nounced in Italy than in the other countries.

If, in fact, we pause to consider Italy in the 15th century, we find a highly civilized country

with a vibrant culture, and a population of about ten million divided between small, quarrelsome states, each with its own ruler and court. In the

fortresses and churches, there now abounded in every city and state patrician palaces, princely residences and cathedrals commissioned by ar-tistic patrons without equal in history. No new cities were built, except in very rare cases, and existing ones were radically altered (fig. 1) by

2. LEON BATTISTA ALBERT

(attr.), The Ideal City, Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.

3. View of Florence (intorno al 1470), the so-called "Carta della Catena" held by the Museo"Firenze com'era' Florence.

of medieval origin to the Seignories. At the eco- "Beautiful Country"formerly dotted with castles,

...AND THERE WAS LIGHT Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael

4. GIORGIO VASARI, Portrait of Lorenzo de'Medici, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi.

he layout and the func-Nevertheless, the Ital-

sance city with its sober n a human scale (fig. 2), nvented"and a harmony n the surrounding land-ipe sought. Meanwhile, ge monuments in mar-

and bronze were ex-ited, editions of ancient published, major fresco cted, the sciences were nology progressed. thought created consid-irough its rediscovery of • ising the mostsignificant al and scientific achieve-t, it injected new life into

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is the ideal centre of this

3): a city-state governed a family of astute mer-

)atrons of the arts who nut as apothecaries and in becoming the leading iiest bankers in Europe.

:isely at the time when noese explorer Christo-Columbus was discov-the New World, Flor-- the "City of Flowers" proudly displayed a red in its coat of arms - had ned the appellation "the new Athens"; its gold

5. MICHELANGELO, David, Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia.

currency, the form, was legal tender through-out Europe. It was under the rule of the brilliant Lorenzo de' Medici (1444-1492) (fig. 4) - the man who "tipped the scales" in the stormy Ital-ian politics of the period - that the city experi-enced its greatest economic and artistic pros-perity. The most important and most promising painters, sculptors and architects gravitated to Florence from every part of Italy. They worked in the city for a brief, magical period, divided by rivalries but united by a common denominator: the genius of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and the younger Raphael (1483-1520), three artists who knew they were talented, who proudly, and ar-rogantly, considered themselves the leading ex-ponents of the figurative art of the period, but who humbly recognized that beyond every goal lay another still to be reached.

When Raphael left his magnificent Urbino and arrived in Florence in autumn 1504 with the col-ours and the refined painting styles of his teach-er Perugino (1450-1523), his father Giovanni Santi (1433-1494), his family's friend Melozzo da ForIl (1438-1494), Pintoricchio (1445-1513) and Piero della Francesca (1416/17-1492) still very

.they taught the world"

6. ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO

AND LEONARDO DA VINCI,

Baptism of Christ, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi,

much in his mind, the city offered a remarkable panorama of beauty and excellence. He rarely met Michelangelo and nothing is known about Raphael's relationship with Leonardo, by whom he was nevertheless profoundly influenced with regard to purity of drawing and chromatism. Just two months previously Michelangelo's Dav-id (fig. 5), symbol of a renewed commitment to freedom, had been placed outside Palazzo della Signoria, while Leonardo and Michelangelo were preparing for their historic "duel" in the Sala dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio, where they were to paint respectively frescoes of the battles of Anghiari and Cascina.

The Humanistic and Renaissance culture spread from Florence to the whole of Italy and the principal European courts, but it was in the Tuscan city - equidistant from the papal court in Rome and the Milanese court of Ludovico il Moro - that the activities of the three great Renaissance masters were interwoven. Later, they would be-come universally known and admired by their Christian names, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, without their surnme or any appella-

tion indicating their city of origin being added. The main aim of the exhibition is to trace the

rivalries and affinities between the three major

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7. LEONARDO, Pro getti di ingegneria (Codex Atlanticus, Milan, Ambrosiana).

...AND THERE WAS LIGHT Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael