NEW YORK, NY.- Marilena Ferrari, President of the Fondazione FMR-Marilena Ferrari, will present for the first time in the United States, Michelangelo. La dotta mano (Michelangelo. The Learned Hand), a book dedicated to the genius of Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Ms. Ferrari will attend the donation ceremony together with Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library, David Ferriero Andrew W. Mellon, Director of The New York Public Libraries and Michael Inman, curator of Rare Books of The New York Public Library.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the painting of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

The Fondazione FMR-Marilena Ferrari, in collaboration with the FMR-Marilena Ferrari fine art publishing house, pays homage to the genius of Michelangelo Buonarroti by launching the bookwonderful series with the publication of Michelangelo. La dotta mano. The bookwonderful series, a collection of limited edition works of extraordinary artistic and cultural value, is now being brought to the United States. Thanks to its aesthetic perfection and refined craftsmanship, Michelangelo. La dotta mano is the perfect interpretation of the Civiltà della Bellezza, a program started by Marilena Ferrari, founder and President of the fine art publishing house FMR and Fondazione FMR, aimed at the actual construction of beauty as a common and shared experience.

Only thirty-three copies of Michelangelo. La dotta mano will be published worldwide, each commanding a price of 100,000 euros. A bas-relief stands out on the cover, faithfully reproducing the Madonna della Scala (Madonna of the Steps) by Michelangelo (c. 1490), executed in statuary marble extracted from the Polvaccio quarries, the same quarries from which Buonarroti obtained his own marble. Every detail of the work, from the silk velvet material, to the decorated paper of the inner cover flaps, to the silk-screen prints, to the printing and the binding, reveals extremely careful design and a great aspiration to excellence and absolute value.

The Fondazione FMR-Marilena Ferrari donated a copy of the Michelangelo. La dotta mano to the Prado Museum on June 19th, 2008, and donated another copy to the City Council of Bologna, the city where the Foundation headquarters are based.

The first official donation in the United States will be in New York on December 1st, during which Marilena Ferrari will present Michelangelo. La dotta mano to Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library, one of the most distinguished American libraries. The work will become an active part of the collection of the Rare Book Division, which houses approximately 130,000 titles, covering five centuries of printing – from the 1450s to the present – and representing Continental Europe, England, and the America.

From December 2nd through December 8th, the Michelangelo. La dotta mano will be on display for public view at The New York Public Library, in the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room, together with a video detailing the making of the book.

Founded in 2008, the Fondazione FMR-Marilena Ferrari promotes the values that inspire the work of FMR Group. It supports the development of the numerous activities initiated by Group in the cultural, social, and educational spheres. The Foundation carries out research, general and specialized educational activities, promotional initiatives, and preservation of Italian and European cultural and artistic heritage, especially pertaining to the excellence of Italian craftsmanship and of the art of the book.

Aurelio Amendola
Born in Pistoia, throughout his long career as a photographer, Aurelio Amendola has developed a particular sensitivity to the world of sculpture, documenting the work of Jacopo della Quercia, Michelangelo and Donatello and separately illustrating masterpieces and monuments such as the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano and the frieze in Ceppo Hospital by Luca della Robbia, both located in Pistoia; Santa Maria della Spina and the Baptistery in Pisa and Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

This latter work, the first in a series dedicated to the great themes of Italian art seen through the eyes of the photographer, presents a completely new iconographic campaign, developed distinctly for keeping with the specific requirements of the project. Seizing the rare opportunity of unrestricted access to the monuments of Bernini and, generally speaking, to the various architectural and sculptural elements that characterise the cathedral as a symbol of Christianity, Amendola succeeds in portraying the most unexpected angles and details.

Contemporary art is another theme of great interest to Amendola who, with the passage of time, has created a genuine gallery of portraits, including the best known masters of the 20th century such as De Chirico, Lichtenstein, Pomodoro, Schifano, Kosuth, Warhol and many more. This collection, renewed every day with the same passion and brought up to date in terms of the latest names and movements, has acquired a special cultural and human value thanks to the constant personal relationship between the photographer and the artists. Effectively, numerous monographs dedicated to the greatest contemporary sculptors and painters, including Marino Marini, Burri, Manzù, Fabbri, Ceroli, Vangi and Kounellis, can be attributed to the work of Amendola.

Some of his most emblematic photographic portraits are on public display in the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation headquarters in Milan. In 1997 he was awarded the “Cino da Pistoia” prize in recognition of his professional career. In 2007 an exhibition of his photographs of Michelangelo’s sculptures was held in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

To discover more about FMR please visit www.fmronline.com