Nov. 22nd, 2017 04:52 pm
Art exhibition
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imhilienWell, in the last few days it suddenly turned into summer with temperatures in the early 20’s. Hooray. It’s good to wear t-shirts again.
I recently went with a friend to the Corsini family art exhibition currently on at the Auckland Art Gallery, where there were paintings that went all the way back to the 13th century, some paintings by artists such as Botticelli and Caravaggio.
The reason we are lucky to get an exhibition like this dates back from World War 2. A New Zealand battalion was based in Florence near where the Corsini family lived, and helped protect the art being carried off by Nazis, which all sounds a bit Indiana Jones-ish, doesn't it. One of the paintings (of the family saint!) was actually shot twice at by a Nazi, and the family afterwards decided to keep the bullet holes in as a reminder of the war to future generations.
So, all these years later as a way of saying thank you, they allowed New Zealand to have an exhibition of their paintings - I think it’s the first time this art has been outside Florence. Most of the paintings were religious or Greek / Roman myth based, which was typical in pre-19th century art. There were some of family members from the late Middle Ages which I liked as it’s good to see how people dressed in those days.
One painting was of an unidentified man from the Middle Ages who had a very ‘Professor Snape’ expression – you could almost imagine him thinking, ‘why am I stuck here having my portrait done when I could be doing More Important Things you idiots’. LOL.
My friend and I had lunch first at the gallery café, which was a good idea as we were in the exhibition for a few hours. There were also other things as Ye Olde kitchen ware and a dining room table set for a meal.
https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/exhibition/the-corsini-collection
I recently went with a friend to the Corsini family art exhibition currently on at the Auckland Art Gallery, where there were paintings that went all the way back to the 13th century, some paintings by artists such as Botticelli and Caravaggio.
The reason we are lucky to get an exhibition like this dates back from World War 2. A New Zealand battalion was based in Florence near where the Corsini family lived, and helped protect the art being carried off by Nazis, which all sounds a bit Indiana Jones-ish, doesn't it. One of the paintings (of the family saint!) was actually shot twice at by a Nazi, and the family afterwards decided to keep the bullet holes in as a reminder of the war to future generations.
So, all these years later as a way of saying thank you, they allowed New Zealand to have an exhibition of their paintings - I think it’s the first time this art has been outside Florence. Most of the paintings were religious or Greek / Roman myth based, which was typical in pre-19th century art. There were some of family members from the late Middle Ages which I liked as it’s good to see how people dressed in those days.
One painting was of an unidentified man from the Middle Ages who had a very ‘Professor Snape’ expression – you could almost imagine him thinking, ‘why am I stuck here having my portrait done when I could be doing More Important Things you idiots’. LOL.
My friend and I had lunch first at the gallery café, which was a good idea as we were in the exhibition for a few hours. There were also other things as Ye Olde kitchen ware and a dining room table set for a meal.
https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/exhibition/the-corsini-collection
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