Pio Monte della Misericordia- Women's stories

Literature, society and traditions in the Neapolitan painting of the 19th and 20th century

Pio Monte della Misericordia Modern Gallery:
Open daily 9,00-14,00 - Wednesday excepted

PRESENTATION

The exhibition, formed by about 30 artworks of the Province of Naples collection, shows a figurative itinerary on the theme of the woman by the observation of the Neapolitan painting of the 19th and 20th century. The Verismo Painting of Domenico Morelli school has constantly offered significant images of the history of Risorgimento and Romanticism, where the role of some women is been very important: from the heroines of the historical novel (Pia dei Tolomei or Camiola Turinga who refused the marriage with Orlando D'Aragona) to the protagonists of the events of the Risorgimento (Eleonora Pimenthel Fonseca, The prisoners of Castel Nuovo).
The painting of 19th century guides us to know the customs of the local traditions by a multiplicity of languages that intersecting with the everyday life of those centuries, shows an Italian situation bound to rural societies and to traditions of the province (La vigilia di San Giovanni, by Carmine Toro, Un battesimo a Cassino by Giuseppe Scorrano), while in other works we see how an urban subproletariat class tries to impose itself by its gestures and ancestral rites (Il tatuaggio dell'amore di Vincenzo Migliaro). Complex and significant signs of southern society of the period that meet our cultural identity.

: Migliaro Vincenzo_Il Tatuaggio_sec.XIX_olio su tela

The passage to the new century offers new reflections on the woman. The painting of 20th century shows the loneliness and social contradictions of the century, the mirror of the new middle-class society. This interpretation is reflected in Pallida Mors by Mario Borgoni, Sotto la lampada by Edgardo Curcio and La Bagnante by Gabriele Mattera.
The exhibition doesn't want to express a feminist fanaticism but to focus the attention on the situation of the past history, representing the woman as protagonist of the literature, the popular traditions, and the society of that time.
The quality of the artworks has permitted the initiative of a requalification project of the collection that still waits for an its adequate and complete musealization.
The Province of Naples exhibition is organized at the Modern Gallery of Pio Monte della Misericordia, at piano nobile (first floor) but in settings different from the famous Historical Gallery.

The new rooms will be open to the public from December 16th, 2008.
Luisa Martorelli, curator of the exhibition and editor of the catalogue, publishing house: Arte'm, 10,00