... Per la prima volta in Italia sarà finalmente possibile ammirare una ricca selezione di opere appartenenti alla più importante collezione al mondo di dipinti fiamminghi e olandesi del XVII secolo, quella della Gemäldegalerie di Berlino, composta da capolavori quali Il cambiavalute di Rembrandt a la Ragazza col filo di perle di Vermeer.

Attraverso i 55 capolavori esposti i visitatori avranno l'opportunità di conoscere l'arte e la cultura delle Fiandre e dell'Olanda durante il loro 'Secolo d'Oro'.

Il percorso evidenzia l'alto grado di sviluppo raggiunto dalla cultura pittorica dell'arte olandese in un periodo storico caratterizzato da cambiamenti significativi a livello culturale, politico, economico e religioso.

Allo stesso tempo chiarisce quanto radicate e profonde fossero, negli stessi anni, le differenze tra l'Italia e i Paesi Bassi nell'estetica e nella realtà sociale, pur esistendo dei parallelismi dovuti all'influenza che l'arte italiana ebbe in artisti come Rubens o Van Dyck.

Tra i capolavori in mostra al Museo del Corso: Il cambiavalute e il ritratto di Hendrickje Stoffels di Rembrandt; L'uomo con l'elmo d'oro, considerato a lungo la quintessenza della sua arte ritrattistica, una sorta di equivalente della Gioconda, poi attribuito a un anonimo pittore della sua cerchia; La sacra famiglia di Aert de Gelder, mirabile esempio della trasposizione di temi sacri nell'arte olandese; Ragazzo che canta, con flauto di Frans Hals, un vivace ritratto di un garzone che ha appena smesso di suonare, sorpreso da qualcosa che rimane invisibile agli occhi degli spettatori; L'ammonimento paterno di Gerard ter Borch, esempio di grande calibro della pittura di genere olandese; la Ragazza col filo di perle di Jan Vermeer, capolavoro assoluto di un artista unico, che ha prodotto solo 36 opere, noto per la luminosità e la limpidezza della sua pittura; La Madre e La pesatrice d'oro, mirabili tele di Pieter de Hooch, insieme a Vermeer il più rappresentativo artista di interni; Paesaggio con l'impiccato di Rubens, una tela di rara bellezza di pittura paesaggistica con la sua atmosfera pesante e inquietante; Tommaso di Carignano Principe di Savoia e Ritratto di gentildonna genovese di Anton van Dyck, discepolo preferito di Rubens e pittore amato e ricercato dalle grandi famiglie notabili di tutta Europa per la sua altissima abilità di ritrattista. Tra gli altri, saranno esposte anche opere di Cornelis Bega, Gerard Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Salomon Jacobsz van Ruisdael e Jan Stehen.

L'esposizione è a cura di Berndt Lindemann, direttore della Gemäldegalerie, ed è realizzata con la collaborazione di MondoMostre.

© MondoMostre

The Fondazione Roma brings the artists of the Netherlands’ Golden Century to Rome in an exhibition at the Museo del Corso.
From November 11, 2008 to February 15, 2009, the Fondazione Roma, headed by Prof. Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, will present the exhibition From Rembrandt to Vermeer.
Civil Values in 17th‐century Flemish and Dutch Painting at its Museo del Corso.
Representing the “Golden Century” of Flemish and Dutch art, the exhibition focuses on the development of the genre of the domestic interior, which was dedicated to family life and reflected the innovative social context and civil values of Holland in the 17th century.
For the first time in Italy, it will finally be possible to admire a large selection of works belonging the world’s most important collection of 17th‐century Dutch and Flemish paintings: that of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie, which includes masterpieces such as Rembrandt’s The Money Changer and Vermeer’s Woman with a Pearl Necklace.
“The exhibition is the result of the cooperation between the Fondazione Roma and the Gemäldegalerie following the Foundation’s decision to contribute to the project of taking the Sebastiano del Piombo exhibition presented at Palazzo Venezia in Rome to Berlin,” says Prof. Emanuele. “The works that will be exhibited at the Museo del Corso come, in effect, from the Gemäldegalerie. From the point of view of art history, the exhibition is one of the most important that the Foundation has organized in the last few years. It aims to offer visitors a group of works that is highly representative of a genre rarely seen in Italian museums and, in accordance with the Foundation’s philosophy, to highlight art as an instrument of knowledge and dialogue capable of laying the foundation for a fair and open discussion with the cultures of other peoples.”
The 55 masterpieces on display will enable visitors to learn about the art and culture of Flanders and Holland during their “Golden Century”. The exhibition reflects the high degree of development achieved by the pictorial culture of Dutch painting in a historical period characterized by significant changes at the cultural, political, economic, and religious levels. At the same time, it shows how radical and deep the esthetic and social differences between Italy and the Netherlands were at the time, even though there were parallels deriving from the influence that Italian art had on artists like Rubens and Van Dyck.

The historical context
In the second half of the 16th century, Dutch artists found themselves in a new situation. The political split between the northern provinces of the Netherlands and the southern ones, which remained loyal to the Spanish crown, and the establishment in 1588 of the Republic of the United Provinces deprived the Provinces of the North of a court center and at the same time brought to an end the large commissions for churches. The increasing dissemination of the principles of the Protestant Reformation inevitably changed the artistic production of the period.
Painters no longer had certain commissions and earnings, and thus had to “place” their works on the market just like any other goods. The split between artists and patrons was to change the entire structure of the art world, where paintings were no longer bound to power or religion, but would have to satisfy popular taste and be a direct expression of it. The artists’ customers now belonged to the new middle class, which was connected with the rapid Dutch commercial and economic growth. Like the European nobility, they discovered that paintings are a symbol of power and wealth, emblems to collect and to show off in their homes, of which they often requested a “portrait”. For this new class, the importance of owning works of art is shown by the presence within the picture of another painting or, in some cases, of the same one.
A pictorial genre
This was the historical context out of which emerged the painting of interiors and group portraits, in which the subjects are depicted doing everyday things, in a setting which for the first time was that of intimate family life and presented the viewer with a detailed representation of Dutch society in the 17th century. Everyday scenes and objects referring to hidden meanings and moral admonitions acquired artistic dignity in such paintings.
Very fashionable were also portraits, which depicted mainly the new middle class, paintings representing historical subjects, and still lives. Artists began to execute landscapes, in which, once figurative subjects were eliminated, the background was to become more and more important. In order to facilitate their transportation and sale, paintings soon became small‐sized. That art is the “mirror of the times” was exemplified by the work of many artists, including Vermeer himself, who used recent scientific discoveries, such as the camera obscura, to reproduce scenes more precisely than was possible with the naked human eye.
The masterpieces on display
The exhibition at the Museo del Corso includes masterpieces such as: The Money Changer and the portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels by Rembrandt; The Man with the Golden Helmet, which was long considered the quintessence of his portraiture and is now attributed to an anonymous painter of his circle; The Holy Family by Aert de Gelder, a marvelous example of the transposition of holy subjects in Dutch art; Singing Boy with a Flute by Frans Hals, a lively portrait of a boy who has just stopped playing and is surprised by something that the eyes of the viewer cannot see; A Paternal Admonishment by Gerard ter Borch, a superior example of Dutch genre painting; the Woman with a Pearl Necklace by Jan Vermeer, an absolute masterpiece by a unique artist, who produced only 36 works and is famous for the luminosity and limpidity of his painting; A Mother and A Woman
Weighing Gold, marvelous paintings by Pieter de Hooch, along with Vermeer the most representative painter of interiors; Landscape with a Hung Man by Rubens, a landscape painting of rare beauty, with its oppressive and disquieting atmosphere; Tommaso di Carignano, Prince of Savoia and Portrait of A Genoese Noblewoman by Anton van Dyck, Rubens’s favorite disciple and a painter who was loved and sought after by great families all over Europe because of his very great skill in portraiture. The exhibition also includes works by, among others, Cornelis Bega, Gerard Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Salomon Jacobsz van Ruisdael, and Jan Stehen.
Bernd Lindemann, Director of the Gemäldegalerie, is the curator of the exhibition, which is organized in cooperation with MondoMostre.