We The Italians | Italian art: Giovanni of Udine

Italian art: Giovanni of Udine

Italian art: Giovanni of Udine

  • WTI Magazine #140 Jun 18, 2021
  • 695

His name was Giovanni Ricamatori, in this absurd year there would be his first retrospective in his native Udine in Friuli Venezia Giulia, until the end of next week. Like many other artists already discussed, he was part of Raphael's workshop and like many of his colleagues Giovanni was the founder of a genre, the Grotesque and more generally the decoration that I would define "structural".

The grotesque inspired by the marble decorations of antiquity was already known and practiced in the generation before the painter, but with the possibility of copying the paintings of the vaults of the Domus Aurea, the pictorial theme begins to broaden the field. The grotesque evolves, expands on the ceilings, as frames for the wall episodes. And Giovanni is the inventor and interpreter, bringing the genre to a sophisticated degree.

The same goes for the floral decorations that are the structure of the fake pergolas of the Farnesina and the Vatican Loggias. He is the inventor of a meta-medium, the grotesque will become the frame and container of stories, which enhances and supports will be copied for centuries and centuries.

A genre many times approached to the oneiric dimension, where there is no logic, weight, narrative or criterion: everything is self-supported, senselessly, but at the same time refers to the most elegant classicism. Capable of the minutiae of a goldsmith's chisel, which he manages to make enjoyable from meters away, perhaps on a ceiling. They range from garlands of juicy fruits and foliage, to small temples supported by ribbons, carried by rampant pachyderms. Everything about it is a marvel.

The exhibition has been postponed and will be held at Castle of Udine from June 12 to September 12, 2021. A considerable number of drawings from European museums and from a private American collection will be on display for the first time, testifying to his skill in depicting the animal and plant world, particularly birds. Stuccoes, engravings, documents, letters, books and much more will also document the multifaceted activity of the artist.

Sections dedicated to prints and architectural drawings allow to know the main places and environments where Giovanni da Udine was active: from the Farnesina to the Vatican Loggias, from Villa Madama to the Sacrestia Nuova of San Lorenzo in Florence. The historical and cultural context of the period in which he lived is reconstructed through books, documents and films. A special section reproposes at the Castle of Udine the documentary exhibition held in April 2017 at the Farnesina, dedicated to the festoons made by the artist in the Loggia di Psiche.

The exhibition also intends to offer visitors an itinerary to admire live the architectural works, frescoes and stuccoes made by Giovanni da Udine and his collaborators in the Castle of Colloredo di Montalbano, in Spilimbergo, in San Daniele del Friuli and Udine. The itinerary continues also outside Friuli, with stops in Venice, for a visit to Palazzo Grimani, and in Rome, where his most famous works are preserved.

A versatile artist, Giovanni da Udine devoted himself to drawing, painting, architecture, stucco and restoration. Raphael wanted him at his side in the Loggia of Psyche at the Farnesina and in the Vatican Loggias, Michelangelo held him in high esteem, Clement VII entrusted him with delicate restoration and decoration work both in Rome and Florence. In Rome he remained even after the disappearance of Raphael, but around the middle of the thirties of the sixteenth century he returned to Udine, with the intention of "not touching brushes anymore".

However, pressed by the commissions, he did not maintain his self-retirement. It realized the long frieze to stucco and fresco in the castle of Spilimbergo and, to Venice, the decoration of two rooms of Grimani Palace. As an architect, he designed the monumental double-flight staircase in the Castle of Udine, thanks to which the public will be able to access the Sala del Parlamento that hosts the retrospective.