Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna

Within the rich jubilee program, Umbria has dressed in the Franciscan habit for the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Creatures: The exhibition at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria is wonderful, celebrating the relationship between man and nature through 80 masterpieces. A significant political and institutional effort has allowed Umbria to bring to life paintings of absolute value, some of which are difficult to see, by artists such as Beato Angelico, Pisanello, Stefano da Verona, Paolo Uccello, Jan van Eyck, Piero della Francesca, Antonello da Messina, Leonardo da Vinci, Leon Battista Alberti, Albrecht Dürer, Lorenzo Lotto, Dosso Dossi, Giambologna, Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna: La natura nell’arte tra Beato Angelico, Leonardo e Carol. Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Nature in art between Beato Angelico, Leonardo and Carol. 

The purpose of the exhibition is clear in its logic from the beginning: it wants to accompany the visitor on a journey that explains the evolution of the relationship between man and nature through the centuries and the different sensibilities. A spring nature, rich in fruit, in the ideal garden of the annunciation recognizable in the Last Judgement of the Blessed Dominican friar; a nature seen through a telescope by Galileo and reported scientifically in his notebooks; a nature subjected to physical and mathematical laws, as dictated by Piero in panels and frescoes; a multifaceted nature like that collected by the Baroque collector in Lo Scarabattolo, a visual delicacy for adults and children more famous than its author Domenico Remps. Directly from a Wunderkammer, a chamber of wonders, a picturesque collection of botanical trinkets, astronomical objects, physics instruments that glue the curious to the broken display case. And again the exhibition makes us blessed in front of the calm of the contemplative nature of Verna where the Saint celebrated in the canticle received the stigmata; disturbing instead the stormy and threatening nature of Vesuvius erupting in the romantic 19th century. Do not miss the famous predella painted by Paolo Uccello, Miracle of the Profaned Host, a macabre thriller on canvas, on the theft of the host by the Jewish woman who has always attracted everyone's attention, like any self-respecting crime story. The Salvia pantone chosen by the curator to immerse the visitor in the path is wonderful, but it is not appreciated much because of the only flaw of the exhibition: too dark! Too bad, the captions were enlarged along the way, but the excessive darkness, put in to enhance the golden rain of the works, ends up tiring the eyesight giving a sense of general disorientation. Maybe the light will be increased in the coming months, who knows. 

The exhibition concludes with an experience in the permanent immersive room of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, where you are embraced by the Canticle of the Creatures to discover various details of the works on display that leave a deep joy and inner calm: isn’t the Canticle a prayer?

Valentina Niccolai