TURIN.- Musei Reali di Torino is presenting the exhibition titled “From Botticelli to Mucha. Beauty, Nature, Seduction”, a journey through beauty depicted in its various facets.

The exhibition’s 11 rooms and 10 sections present, from a completely fresh perspective, more than one hundred works originating from the immense holdings of Musei Reali di Torino, from the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, and from other prestigious institutions and Italian and international collections. Masterpieces of different eras, types, and origins dialogue with one another on the theme of beauty interpreted through myth, the allure of the antique, and the wonder of nature – as well as the wonder inherent to the world of women and depicted with exemplary grace and sensuality.

Starting from the glorious Renaissance and through the years of the Belle Époque, the exhibition features works by Sandro Botticelli – creator of timeless female figures like his famed Venus (1485- 1490) now in the Savoy Gallery’s Gualino collection –, Antonio Canova, Alphonse Mucha, and a host of other masters. Leonardo da Vinci, with the Royal Library’s splendid Head of a Woman, an autograph drawing done between about 1478 and 1485, is also being prominently displayed in the new Spazio Leonardo exhibition space on the first storey of the Savoy Gallery.

Section 1 – In the Name of Venus

The exhibition opens with a section dedicated to Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, but also a symbol of the generating force of nature and one of the subjects most depicted and celebrated by artists throughout time. Prominently featured among the various works on display is the famed Venus by Botticelli, now in the Savoy Gallery’s Gualino collection, juxtaposed with the Venus by Lorenzo di Credi on loan from the Uffizi Galleries.

A selection of paintings and precious objects, all belonging to the collections of Musei Reali, bear witness to the great success and spread of themes linked to Venus from Antiquity to the 19th century. They depict the goddess at the moment of her birth or with Cupid and amorini, symbolically associated with a dove to celebrate love, or lying supine as she directs her gaze towards the viewer or in the act of contemplating herself in the mirror.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the diagnostic investigations carried out on Botticelli’s Venus are presented for the first time, revealing the artist’s drawing techniques and ripensamenti.

Section 2 – The Myth of Helen

The exhibition continues with the articulation of the myth of Helen, symbol of femininity throughout Western culture. The seductive power exercised by this figure over the centuries and the events linked to her myth and to the Trojan War are recounted starting from the late-16th-century panels by Lambert Sustris and from two splendid early 17th-century tapestries from the Brussels Manufactory: the Abduction of Helen and Helen Greeted by Priam, King of Troy, all conserved at the Savoy Gallery. The section ends with the refined 1738 marble sculpture group with The Abduction of Helen by Francesco Bertos, and the elegant, late-18th-century porcelain from the Sèvres Manufactory depicting The Judgment of Paris, both from the Royal Palace’s collections.

Section 3 – The Three Graces

This room is dedicated to the Three Graces: Euphrosyne (Joy), Aglaia (Radiance) and Thalia (Abundance). Daughters of Zeus and of the oceanid Eurynome, the goddess of all that exists, the three maidens were regarded since Antiquity as the personification of beauty and feminine grace, and often associated with Venus and Cupid. The works on display include three drawings by Antonio Canova belonging to the Royal Library: a female nude, a group of nymphs with an amorino, and a charcoal sketch considered one of the most intense of the preparatory sheets Canova drew for the famed sculpture group The Three Graces.

Section 4 – Looking at the Antique: the Roman Sketchbook of Girolamo da Carpi

Section 4 focuses on Girolamo Sellari, commonly known as Girolamo da Carpi. A Ferrarese artist active in the first half of the 16th century, a virtuoso painter and acclaimed architect, he also proved to be a draughtsman with great expressive intensity and attention to detail.

The Roman Sketchbook is his masterpiece. A large album containing 180 sheets all with drawings on both sides, the sketchbook is now dismembered and divided between the Royal Library in Turin, the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, and the British Museum in London. The Royal Library conserves the greatest number of sheets, totalling no fewer than 90.

The result of the artist’s stay in Rome between 1549 and 1553 while in the retinue of the cardinal Ippolito d’Este, the album contains numerous sketches of Roman monuments and ancient sculptures that, during Girolamo’s time, could still be seen in their original sites or had already become part of large collectors’ holdings.

However, his careful eye was not limited to the remains of Ancient Rome: in fact, the Turinese sketchbook also includes sketches drawn from Raphael and Michelangelo, that Girolamo felt the need to reproduce as examples of virtuosity, beauty, and contemporary classicism.

Section 5 – The Wonder of Nature: the Nature Albums of Charles Emmanuel I

The beauty of nature, a source of wonder with the unfolding of its life forces, is the subject of the next two rooms, which present the Royal Library’s extraordinary albums of flowers, fish, and birds that, in the early 17th century, belonged to the “chamber of wonders” of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy from 1580 to 1630.

The so-called Album dei Pesci or “Album of fish” was done in around the 1620s by one or more artists active in the Savoy court. It consists of 75 tables painted in tempera on paper, and each exemplar is glued to a large-format sheet. Aquatic animals like Mediterranean fish, freshwater fish, reptiles, mammals, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms are depicted; each species is identified with a name, also cut out and glued to paper.

Album degli uccelli, the “Album of birds,” was done by skilled taxidermists presumably active during those same years. The 16 sheets from the album that have come down to us are the result of a restructuring probably done in the late 18th century, when the colourful outlines with real feathers glued to the surface were transferred to sheets in silk that was sometimes dyed.

The so-called Album dei Fiori (“Album of flowers”) consists of 53 tables produced by a number of draughtsmen, differing in size and quality but all done in watercolour on paper. Except for the table describing a starfish, the illustrations depict local plants and flowers, but also exotic species; there are also plenty of invented flowers and plants, some imported to Europe from the New World, fancifully created by Baroque sensibility to astonish the viewer. Done and assembled in the early years of the 17th century, the collection is the final heir to a tradition with roots in illuminated Medieval herbaria.

Section 6 – Fascination with Classical Art During the Renaissance

This section is dedicated to the influence that ancient art had starting in the 15th century, giving rise to our grand Renaissance.

A passion for the ancient involved artists and patrons operating between Florence and Rome, but also Padua, where the mid-century artistic climate was among the liveliest on the Italian peninsula. Donatello’s long stay in Padua influenced the leading painters who apprenticed, one after another, in the workshop of Francesco Squarcione: the great Mantegna, Marco Zoppo and, following in his footsteps, the Dalmatian Giorgio Schiavone. Of the latter, the exhibition includes a painted panel enriched with a number of at times extravagant references, like the majestic triumphal arch reduced to an aedicule, the inserts of polychrome marble and porphyry, and the festoon laden with fruits.

At the end of the century, a not dissimilar taste can be seen in the Circumcision by the Bolognese artist Giovanni Battista Cavalletto, a leading Bolognese illuminator between the 15th and 16th centuries.

Now in the 16th century, the work by Ludovico Mazzolino and “Il Garofalo” also depicts at its centre a free interpretation of ancient triumphal arches. In its turn, the altarpiece by the Piedmontese artist

Macrino d’Alba for the Turin Cathedral shows the extent to which, between the 15th and 16th centuries, archaeological taste radiated from the Eternal City even to faraway cities: his Adoration appears set beneath an arch in the Roman Forum and in front of an almost postcard view with the Colosseum in full view.

The remains of Nero’s Domus Aurea were discovered in Rome towards the end of the 15th century. Thus began the long season of “grottesche,” paintings in which objects, human or mythological figures, and subjects drawn from the world of plants, animals, and the monstrous, lived a very lively coexistence. Among the first to engage with them were the artists working on the Sistine Chapel, particularly Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Signorelli, and – first and foremost – Pinturicchio; quite soon, however, grottesche were spreading like wildfire. It was then Raphael’s turn to create new models, reinterpreting the ancient decorations at sites like the Vatican loggias, where he involved his young assistants; these included Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine, artists responsible for two refined drawings with grottesca motifs on display here.

Once the 16th century was fully underway, grottesche could be encountered in every form of artistic production, from paintings to architectural reliefs, from miniatures to enamelwork, from majolica to arms and armour. The exhibition includes a cinquedea, a sophisticated cold weapon carved with mythological figures, and the circular parade shield featuring elegantly embossed Olympian gods.

Late Renaissance artists could not resist the expressive force of certain ancient masterpieces, exemplified here by the colossal head from Alba perhaps belonging to a female divinity, or by the Relief with the Maenads, penetrated by an energetic rhythm that appears to find new vitality in the effervescent Baccanti by Giovanfrancesco Rustici, a Florentine sculptor and contemporary of Leonardo and Michelangelo. Rustici’s pupil Baccio Bandinelli is responsible for the sheet with Two studies of draped female figures, done most likely in front of some seductive ancient statue, while the fine drawing of a Caryatid by the painter/architect Pellegrino Tibaldi is derived from one of the fascinating monochrome figures painted by Raphael in the wainscot beneath the famed School of Athens.

Section 7– The Universe of Female Beauty

This section is dedicated to a series of emblematic female figures characterized by grace encountering exceptional virtue, between history, myth, and allegory.

The theme of chastity understood as virtue has very ancient roots, and can be found, for example, in connection with figures like Artemis/Diana in classical mythology, or Susanna in the Old Testament.

Towards 1485, the Florentine painter and illuminator Gherardo di Giovanni translated this theme to canvas in a highly refined way: the exhibition includes the panel inspired by Roman-Age military triumphs in which Modesty is enthroned on a wagon rich with ancient-style decorations, while a defeated Cupid, bound and with broken wings, sits at a lower level. As occurs in many 15th-century depictions of Chastity, this painting was also linked to the occasion of a marriage, with the intent of exalting the new bride’s virtues.

In the fascinating portrait Young Woman with Unicorn by the Ravenna artist Luca Longhi, painted in the mid-16th century, we can see what is probably a likeness of Giulia Farnese (ca. 1475 – 1524), famed for her charm and for having been the very young lover of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI.

The itinerary continues with works in which the beauty of women’s bodies is interpreted at times allegorically, as in the sensual Allegory of Geometry by Lorenzo Sabatini in the Savoy Gallery, and at times through the lens of mythology, as in the works depicting Arethusa, Antiope, and Galatea.

Then there is the emblematic figure of Lucretia, a Roman noblewoman who distinguished herself in history not only for her beauty and intelligence, but also for her courage and moral strength, embodying the spirit of the “femme forte”: here, the Romagna-region painter Cristoforo Savolini immortalizes the heroine at the tragic moment when, unable to live in dishonour after being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, she takes her own life.

This section also touches on the theme of the Muses, who represent the supreme ideal of every art, from poetry to music, from dance to astronomy, as the union of beauty, harmony and truth. We find them depicted in the precious copper from Museo Borgogna in Vercelli, an example of the refined 16th- century production of the Florentine painter Giovanni Battista Naldini, or in the three canvases displaying great modernity, that belong to a cycle done in the 1620s by Antiveduto Grammatica, on commission by the House of Savoy.

Another theme that inspired a number of artists was that of the Sibyls, mythological figures from Antiquity known for their abilities in prophesy and their oracles. The six paintings of the Sibyls on display are works by Sister Orsola Maddalena Caccia, the daughter of the Monferrato artist Guglielmo Caccia, called il Moncalvo. Originating from the Moncalvo palazzo belonging to the Dal Pozzo family in the Castellino branch and dating to the 1640s, the cycle is one of the most fascinating examples of the painter’s repertoire.

Section 8 – Queens, Princesses, and Court “belles”

The exhibition goes on to analyze the theme of beauty embodied in the portraits of ladies and princesses of the Savoy court, queens, and famous women in European history.

The Apartment of the Princes of Piedmont on the second storey of the Royal Palace of Turin conserves a rare collection of 37 small, female portraits depicting the court “belles” – noblewomen who lived in the Savoy court between the 17th and the early 18th centuries. The 16 works on display provide an idea of women’s fashion at the time: noblewomen were decked out in precious jewels and sumptuous gowns with wide necklines enriched with embroidery and trimmings in accordance with the style in vogue at the Parisian court, as documented also by the portrait of Marie Antoniette, the Habsburg queen of France from 1774 to 1793, painted by Joseph Ducreux.

The itinerary continues with an imposing china service from Atelier Boyer in Paris, dating to the 1850s. In it, hundreds of noblemen are depicted, joined by female figures from mythology and literature and above all by stars of the European stage like Maria Malibran and Giuditta Pasta, thus clearly showing how a new sensibility was beginning to be manifested.

A special focus is devoted to two extraordinary female figures: the Countess of Castiglione, a noblewoman of rare beauty and a seductive secret agent, and Queen Margherita of Savoy, depicted in portraits by Michele Gordigiani, done when the art of painting was beginning to fear the arrival of photography.

Section 9 – Enchantment and Seduction Between the 19th and 20th Centuries

The itinerary then continues to the next-to-last section, which features attractive interpretations of the female figure between the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, through works by painters like Giacomo Grosso and Carlo Stratta and sculptors like Leonardo Bistolfi, culminating in the timeless beauty immortalized by Alphonse Mucha, a leading figure of Art Nouveau.

It is no secret that the advent of photography gradually freed the arts from the constraints and codes of a realistic representation of the world. This section displays the masterpiece by Cesare Saccaggi (1868– 1934), In Babylon (Semiramis), its subject as modern as a film or opera star, painted in around 1905: a Babylonian lamassu (a winged bull with the face of a human) appears in the background, while the headdress shows precise echoes of the Lady of Elche, an archaeological discovery that made quite the sensation in Europe in 1897; painting became more luminous and was enriched with colourful glass inserts. Also laden with Orientalist culture and Symbolist elements is the magnetic Arachne (1893) by Carlo Stratta (1852–1936), which uses photographic backlight, interweaving half-shadow and luminous effects. Both the young Nude Woman by Giacomo Grosso (1860–1938) and the Leda by Ambrogio Alciati (1878–1929) appear to defend themselves from the light while offering their beauty for our gaze. This section is not without extraordinary works by Leonardo Bistolfi (1859–1933), one of the greatest sculptors at the turn of the 20th century. The works on display include the bronze head, a preparatory piece for the funeral monument to Giovanni Segantini, and the plaster Desiderio della riva lontana (“Desire for a Distant Shore,” 1908–1909); its vibrant modelling, charged with light, renders tangible the contrast between the initial mass and the created form, ready to proceed lightly, to soar, to smile – evoking, even in its title, a spirit moving towards a symbolic, metaphysical space. Fuelled by the same energy is the beautiful plaster Portrait of a Woman (circa 1914), in dialogue with the aethereal and floral figures of Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), which are in turn explicitly inspired by the linearity of Italian Renaissance painters. The Czech artist, one of the most influential practitioners of Art Nouveau, thanks to the technique of chromolithography and to clients like the famed actress Sarah Bernhardt, the publisher Champenois, or the Moët & Chandon champagne house, made a fundamental contribution towards the creation and extensive spread of the imagery and style of the Belle Époque.

Section 10 – A space for Leonardo / Leonardo for the Space: Head of a Woman, a Timeless Beauty

On the same dates as the exhibition, providing a link between the Musei Reali visitor’s itinerary and the show in the Chiablese exhibition halls, a marvellous autograph drawing by Leonardo da Vinci will be on display in a mirrored case placed at the centre of the new Spazio Leonardo space on the first storey of the Savoy Gallery. Known as Head of a Woman and done approximately between 1478 and 1485 circa, it is considered the preparatory drawing for the angel in the Parisian version of the Virgin of the Rocks.

In the literature on Leonardo, the enchanting silverpoint on laid paper is considered an example of Da Vinci’s experiments on the theme of the so-called “portrait from behind,” with the subject’s back in the foreground and her face presenting itself to the viewer thanks to a calculated twisting of the neck. Leonardo’s drawing is the result of careful reflection on what had learned from his master, Andrea del Verrocchio, about how to depict a figure in movement, showing it from various perspectives and in the end capturing the psychology complexity of the subject’s gaze and the magnetic charge of her eyes.