Natura e Maniera tra Tiziano e Caravaggio. Le ceneri violette di Giorgione

In conclusion it is worth considering that Dosso was in Venice around 1510 together with these people from Trent and Friuli - he himself being native of Trent; alongside those from Brescia, Bergamo and Lodi such as Palma, Romanino and Calisto. His art, like the work of all those mentioned above, was born of a single immense cloud of smoke arising from the violet ashes of Giorgione, mixed with the sweet mists of the Po valley and some of the groaning breath of northern expressionism, or thinning out into the clarity of the ancient and most classic rhythms of central Italy that continued to shine towards the south".
Roberto Longhi

And it is precisely from the legacy of Giorgione - so effectively evoked in Longhi's famous words - through the painting of the leading figures in sixteenth century northern Italian art (Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Lotto, Moretto, Romanino, Dossi, Correggio and the members of the Bassano family) that this volume, published for the exhibition held in the splendid rooms of the Palazzo Te in Mantua, tells of the intertwining of Nature and Manner, through the mists of the Po valley. Attention to real detail and formal virtuosity in the works of this period's interpreters show how the "Po valley manner" was in actual fact the combination of several "souls" and several "manners" each one different from the others.
Indeed, the many artists we encounter on this rich journey - represented by over 130 works from numerous museums both in Italy and abroad, from parochial churches as well as from private collections - each start out from the lesson of Giorgione, interpreting it and personalising it in turn but never ignoring it: at times following Giorgione's emphatic restlessness, at other times with emotional embroidery, occasionally conveyed with a more animated composition originating in central Italy or often, rereading the growing naturalism found in the North and the feeling for colour found in local tradition.
The magic union of figure and landscape triggered by Giorgione, his chromatic inventions, are a fundamental legacy that was not lost. Through contact with the growing mannerist influences and the personal contributions of a rich generation of new talents, it burst forth in a "revolutionary" representation of reality - in the extraordinary personality of Caravaggio - which, in turn, exerted its influence on painting in Rome and the greater part of Europe.
Curated by Vittorio Sgarbi with the collaboration of Mario Lucco, Natura e Maniera tra Tiziano e Caravaggio presents works being seen in public for the first time, works that have been newly attributed and pointed and accurate interpretations. This highly articulate journey, alongside the "giants" of this period, leads us to the discovery of artists of great value and works that are lesser known, allowing us to compare the experiences and the different personalities who produced the art of the Po valley region during the sixteenth century, an extraordinary artistic civilization and a patrimony that has no equal in the history of European culture.

INDEX:

19 Le Maniere padane
Vittorio Sgarbi

39 Le ceneri violette, e la gaia pelle del mondo
Mauro Lucco

51 La cosiddetta seconda ondata del Manierismo a Venezia
Filippo Pedrocco

65 Giorgione o Tiziano? Un approccio lombardo
Francesco Rossi

71 Le cadute dei giganti
Vittorio Sgarbi

75 Catalogo delle opere

359 Bibliografia