In Visita | Giorgio De Chirico

In visita (Visiting) is a project that envisages the temporary display of works of art of national or international scope within the permanent 20th-century Collections. The intention is to create opportunities for in-depth analyses of artists, themes and cultural trends of the 20th and 21st centuries and trigger connections that lead to fresh ways of engaging with and studying art.

This second edition is devoted to one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, the painter Giorgio de Chirico, who is featured with a work on loan from the Intesa Sanpaolo Collection: Manichini in riva al mare (Mannequins on the Seashore), 1926. On this occasion, the curators Monica Preti, Annamaria Iacuzzi and Cristina Taddei have placed the painting in dialogue with the bust of Faustina Maggiore (2nd century A.D.), which since the 1980s has been exhibited in the Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi, now one of the venues of Pistoia Musei.

The painting clearly shows the characteristics of the new “classical” tendency that the painter embraced in the Parisian setting where he was living, forging fruitful relationships and collaborations. The theme of antiquity, inescapable for Western culture, emerges forcefully in the master’s work, which stems from reflections nourished by philosophical and art-historical studies, which he also shared with his companion at the time, Raissa Gurevič, an archaeologist. In Gurevič’s numerous scientific publications there was also space for a discussion of the bust of Faustina Maggiore now on display at Palazzo de’ Rossi, which is from the Intesa Sanpaolo Collections.

With the collaboration of the Amici della Musica association of Pistoia, a concert of metaphysical music with internationally renowned pianist Antonio Ballista opened the exhibition to the public on Saturday 22 April.
The exhibition was arranged with the support of Fondazione Caript and the collaboration of Intesa Sanpaolo.