The Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal and the Institut d’Études Méditerranéennes de Montréal are pleased to present “The baroque madness: Bomarzo, the monsters garden” conference by Alessandro Giardino, St. Lawrence University.
Monday April 15 2019, 7pm
Édifice du Pensionnat Saint-Nom-De-Marie
Salle Marie-Stéphane
628, Cote Sainte-Catherine
Outremont
IEMM and IIC members (membership card required) $40.00; Non-members $60.00.
Info: brusyl@videotron.ca
Listed on the bench, says the “Panca Etrusca”, this quote commits those who run the world to admire wonders: “Voi che pel mondo gite erando/ vaghi/ di veder maraviglie alte et/ stupende/ venite qua dove son faccie/ horrende/ elefanti, leoni, orsi, orchi et/ draghi”. And again, the following epitaph solicits reflection and debate: “Tu ch’entri qua con mente/ parte a parte/ et dimmi poi se tante/ maraviglie/ sien fatte per incanno/ o pur per arte” (You who enter here with open mind, tell me if all these wonders are illusion or simply art). Here, the dreamlike and floating space plays with the shadows and the exuberant forms of nature found on the ground that inspired the artist. The grotesque keeps a predilection for hidden places, artificial caves and labyrinths. Freely associated and often erotic in details, these hybrids provoke, disturbing some, making others smile. These monumental sculptures housed like a painting with monstrous bodies, patched up by various members, without order or proportion, look like giant men and animals to discover in the movement of the promenade, in the middle of a bushy vegetation, in a path strange and irregular. Technique and virtuosity dominate the monumental complex and Mannerism is brilliantly synthesized.
Alessandro Giardino, (Ph.D., McGill 2013) is Assistant Professor of Italian & Francophone Studies, and Coordinator of European Studies at St. Lawrence University, NY. His research covers early modern visual culture and intellectual history, Mediterranean literature in Italian and French, French philosophy, and psychoanalysis. He has written for collective volumes and journals. His most recent articles have appeared in NeMLA Italian Studies, Mnemosyne, Aries, Cuadernos de Filologia Italiana, The Italianist, and Quaderni di Italianistica. His book Giorgio Bassani. Percorsi dello sguardo nelle arti visive (G. Pozzi, 2013) was awarded the Roberto Nissim-Haggiag Prize. His presentation stems from his recently published book, Corporeality and Performativity in Baroque Naples: The Body of Naples (Rowman&Littlefield, 2017; Lexington Books Series).
Concert “Forestare” (6 guitars and a double bass). Program: “Et in Arcadia Ego”. Anonimo, “Ciaccona del Paradiso e dell’Inferno”; A. Falconieri, “Sonata fantasia l’Eroica Ciaccona”; A. Piccinini, “Ciaccona”; T. Merula, “Ciaccona sonata e fantasia”, “Ciaccona media”; M. Praetorius, “Terpsichore, balletto e volta”; G.B. Lulli, “Chaconne des scaramouches”; Cazzati, “Ciaccona”; A. Bertali, “Ciaccona”; Praetorius, “Quatre Gavottes”.