2020 is the year in which the 500th anniversary of the death of Raffaello Sanzio, the artist from Urbino, is commemorated, one of the Italian Renaissance’s greatest artists. Perhaps only very few know that Milan hosts a treasure that is unique in all the world. It was 1508 when Raphael came to Rome, called upon to create frescoes in the private apartments in the Vatican of Pope Julius II, just a few metres from the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo was working at the time. In the Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael painted The Athen’s School, which depicts famed philosophers and mathematicians of the ancient world, from Plato to Aristotle, intently speaking together. To create the celebrated painting, Raphael created a 1:1 scale drawing on paper, hardly realising that his masterpiece would cross the confines of the centuries. Already at the start of the 1600s, the sketch of The Athen’s School was sought after by Cardinal Federico Borromeo who was first able to have the work on loan and then was able to buy it for a large sum of money, about the equivalent of 600 liras at the time. At the end of the XVIII Century, the sketch was taken by Napoleon who brought it to the Louvre in Paris where it was restored. In 1815, after Waterloo, thanks to the efforts of another famous artist - Antonio Canova - the original sketch of The Athen’s School returned to Italy and became part of the collection of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana of Milan.
Irony and intelligence to get to the essence of things. The poetics of Tino Stefanoni
Close to conceptual, pop and minimalist research, Tino Stefanoni does not adhere to any movement and prefers to maintain a graphic taste that reduces subjects to pictorial signs and which is renewed over time through continuous experimentation with new techniques.
The exhibition reflects on the traditional concept of the vitrine and its centrality in exhibition projects. In relation to the "classical museum display", the display case separates and at the same time exposes the object, offering it for viewing, but creating a barrier for the viewer.
Nicolas Party's wonderful creatures under the threat of extinction
In the last year Nicolas Party's imagery has evolved: he has painted large forest fires and dinosaurs. When Tomorrow Comes establishes a clear connection between the work and the idea of extinction. The end of humanity and many other species is the artist's theme of interest.
The unconventional approach to the world of luxury of the D&G duo in an elegant, fun and eclectic journey to rediscover the history of one of the most celebrated brands in the Milanese fashion world.