PRE-RAPHAELITES

The new exhibition organised by the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì at the San Domenico Museum is dedicated to a fascinating artistic movement: the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In Victorian England during the mid-nineteenth century, seven young rebellious artists created the Brotherhood with the aim of renewing British art, which they considered to be in decline due to the excessively formal rules imposed by the Royal Academy.

John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the leading founders of the Brotherhood, rejected the conventions of great Italian Renaissance art, especially those established after Raphael, instead promoting a return to the purity of medieval (“Early Italian”) art. Although the Pre-Raphaelites drew on a wide range of historical influences and elements, their movement was not just a reactionary return to the styles of the past, but a visionary project that transformed their works into something decidedly modern. Over time, the Pre-Raphaelites and their admirers shifted their attention to other periods in Italian art including sixteenth-century Venice.

The exhibition Pre-Raphaelites. Modern Renaissance will trace the profound impact of historical Italian art on the Pre-Raphaelite movement between the 1840s and the 1920s. This is a topic that has not much been explored in Italy and will be demonstrated through the placing of Italian masterworks alongside British ones, thanks to generous loans from the most important Italian museums and from museums and private collectors in Britain, North America, Ireland, Germany and Austria. Furthermore, the exhibition will intrigue the English-speaking public by showing, for the first time, works by Italian artists of the late nineteenth century who were inspired by their British precursors.

In addition to the founding artists, other important exponents of the movement such as Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Frederic Leighton will be explored in depth, while other talents will be represented by a selection of works that highlight specific points of connection.

From 24 February to 30 June 2024 the rooms of the San Domenico Museum will host over 300 works belonging to various artistic expressions, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, furniture, ceramics, glass and metal works, fabrics, medals, illustrated books, manuscripts and jewellery.

Organised by the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì in partnership with the Municipality of Forlì, the exhibition is curated by Cristina Acidini, Francesco Parisi, Liz Prettejohn and Peter Trippi. The curatorial team also includes Tim Barringer, Stephen Calloway, Véronique Gerard Powell, Charlotte Gere and Paola Refice.

Now at its 19th project, the history of great exhibitions curated by the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì at the Musei San Domenico was recently the object of international recognition obtained for the Ulysses: Art and Myth (2020) exhibition during the seventh edition of the Global Fine Art Awards in the competitive and coveted Best Ancient category. This recognition came after the award obtained for the Eternity and Time between Michelangelo and Caravaggio exhibition (2018), which topped the Best Renaissance, Baroque, Old Masters, Dynasties – Group or Theme category.