Art and Culture in Perugia

On Tuesday, the Fellows and Director's Guests of Civitella Ranieri enjoyed a day on the town in Perugia, with a series of museum tours organized by Vivien Greene (DG 2016). The first stop was Palazzo della Penna where Massimo Duranti gave us a glimpse into the second wave of Italian Futurist art, most notably the works of Gerardo Dottori.

Vivien Greene translates for Massimo Duranti as he explains the work  'Incendio in città' 

Dottori exemplified the Futurist call to arms with his famous aeropaintings set in the Umbrian landscape that so inspired him. While Futurism screams aggression, velocity and technology, Dottori's works display a communion with peaceful and idyllic nature.  

The Fellows gather to learn about Dottori. To be noted in the background is a depiction of Lake Trasimeno, a setting Dottori often incorporated into his works, as he considered it the meeting point between heaven and earth.  

After a traditional lunch, the group travelled back in time at the Galleria Nazionale di Umbria as curator, Dr. Maria Brucato, led us through a panorama of 15th and 16th century works. The pinnacle of the visit was viewing Piero della Francesca's Polyptych of Sant'Antonio. Groundbreaking for its period, the work features an asymmetrical composition depicting the Annunciation. Along with his innovative use of space and perspective, della Francesca’s naturalistic rendering of figures shines through in this masterpiece, anticipating the work of many later Renaissance painters.