Tradizione e rivoluzione: le Jardin Elysée nel Musée des Monuments Français di Alexandre Lenoir

Nel 1799 Alexandre Lenoir inaugurava, nel chiostro del convento dei Petits Augustins, sede del Musée des Monuments Français, il Giardino Eliseo, dedicato alla memoria delle grandi figure della storia francese, di cui intendeva celebrare la virtù. In questo luogo alcuni dei concetti già cari al museo, almeno nelle sue forme archetipiche, come fama, virtù, memoria, eredi del clima culturale proprio del volgere del secolo dei Lumi, troveranno una concretizzazione visiva, un appello al sentimento e all’immaginazione e un impatto emozionale che, partendo dalla Rivoluzione, apriranno la strada alla nuova epoca del romanticismo e si espanderanno in buona parte del territorio europeo con esiti inaspettati. L’esaltazione delle figure degli uomini illustri era stata difatti una grande affermazione dello spirito illuminista, che aveva spostava il sistema dall’onore al valore. Già il conte D’Angiviller, nel 1775, aveva iniziato a realizzare nella Grand Galerie del Louvre una sala dedicata alle glorie nazionali attraverso commissioni reali, e prima di lui un esponente della borghesia parigina, fedele alla monarchia, Evrard Titon du Tillet (1677 – 1762) aveva concepito l’idea di un grandioso monumento, un “Parnaso francese”, del quale aveva fatto realizzare un modello in bronzo dallo scultore L. Garnier, allievo di Girardon. Con la Rivoluzione la forma di consacrazione pubblica dei grandi troverà soluzione nell’aprile del 1791, con la trasformazione della chiesa di Sainte-Genevieve in Pantheon, presto però trasformato in tempio delle glorie militari. Riprendendo un modello legato alla cultura classica e alla poesia sepolcrale, sarà proprio Lenoir a riallestire nel Jardin Elysée un luogo esemplare di funzione civica e morale: un luogo di raccoglimento, che contribuiva attraverso l’esempio dei grandi - di cui erano allestite tra la vegetazione tombe e cenotafi - a istruire coloro che lo visitavano e a costruire l’identità comunitaria dei cittadini. A questa visione escatologica non era disgiunta quella di trasmutazione interiore propria della massoneria, fortemente legata al clima rivoluzionario e della quale Lenoir era uno dei massimi esponenti. A questo contesto possono essere legati anche alcuni esempi di realizzazioni italiane, specialmente toscane, come il Pantheon di Scornio presso Pistoia

The value of museum communication: the cases of the Paper and Watermark Museum in Fabriano and the Ascoli Piceno Papal Paper Mill Museum in Ascoli Piceno

Guaranteeing the survival of cultural heritage, increasing its accessibility, both physical and intellectual, and the creation of countless benefits for different categories of stakeholders depends both on a perfect comprehension of the interests and abilities of users to take advantage of what is offered and, above all, on identifying and analysing the various types of value that can be attributed to it. According to Montella, there are three types of value that may be analysed for this purpose: a presentation value, informative in nature and inherent in the historical, cultural and possibly artistic value implicit in the heritage; a landscape value, extended to the context, inherent in the factual information services aimed at supporting policies of preventive and programmed conservation: and a production value, commercial in nature, which concerns the external effects generated by cultural heritage management to qualify the products and the images themselves of the businesses in order to make them stand out from the competition. The aim of this article is to inquire into whether, in what way and to what extent the communication of the Paper and Watermark Museum in Faabriano and the Ascoli Piceno Papal Paper Mill Museum in Ascoli Piceno creates presentation value and therefore leads the public to understand how far paper production has influenced the economic and socio-cultural history of the area in which they are located.Guaranteeing the survival of cultural heritage, increasing its accessibility, both physical and intellectual, and the creation of countless benefits for different categories of stakeholders depends both on a perfect comprehension of the interests and abilities of users to take advantage of what is offered and, above all, on identifying and analysing the various types of value that can be attributed to it. According to Montella, there are three types of value that may be analysed for this purpose: a presentation value, informative in nature and inherent in the historical, cultural and possibly artistic value implicit in the heritage; a landscape value, extended to the context, inherent in the factual information services aimed at supporting policies of preventive and programmed conservation: and a production value, commercial in nature, which concerns the external effects generated by cultural heritage management to qualify the products and the images themselves of the businesses in order to make them stand out from the competition. The aim of this article is to inquire into whether, in what way and to what extent the communication of the Paper and Watermark Museum in Faabriano and the Ascoli Piceno Papal Paper Mill Museum in Ascoli Piceno creates presentation value and therefore leads the public to understand how far paper production has influenced the economic and socio-cultural history of the area in which they are located

L'arte indifesa: il destino di artisti e collezioni

This volume publishes the proceedings of the International Study Conference The Undefended Art: the Fate of Artists and Collections after the Enactment of the Racial Laws, investigates from an interdisciplinary perspective the dispersion of Jewish heritage through market dynamics and the lives of artists and collectors. Organized into two sections, art historical and legislative, respectively, the text deals with the taste, formation and musealization of private collections, drawing lines of study on dispersal, re-contextualization and the possibilities offered by the restitutions of the Jewish heritage

Il “pescatore di caurrini”. Introduzione agli scritti di Massimo Montella 1977-2004/The "caurrini fisherman." Introduction to the writings of Massimo Montella 1977-2004

Il testo costituisce l'introduzione alla raccolta di saggi di Massimo Montella

In difesa dell’arte. La protezione del patrimonio artistico delle Marche e dell’Umbria durante la seconda guerra mondiale

Through an exploration of previously unpublished documents, this volume reconstructs the protection of the artistic heritage of Umbria and Le Marche during the Second World War. The first of three sections analyzes the national and international context in which guidelines were developed for protective measures in the event of armed conflict. Patrizia Dragoni, through “Mouseion,” an official publication of the Office International des Musees, examines how members of the League of Nations first discussed this issue in the early 1930s, and, in 1939 after the Spanish Civil War, prepared and published a manual. Carmen Vitale looks at the case of Italy, where supervisory authorities were formed to plan the protection and classification of works of art based on relevance and secure them in previously identified safe-places, away from military targets and, ideally, in unexpected locations. The second section explores the supervisory authorities working in Le Marche and Umbria. Caterina Paparello meticulously analyzes their activities in Le Marche, from precautionary safety plans to measures taken to protect the region’s artistic heritage. Her contribution also describes the work of interregional recovery organizations in Le Marche, through an examination of previously unpublished documents about Pasquale Rotondi, relating to the organization, timing, and actual composition of the artistic and cultural objects brought to safety in Sassocorvaro and Carpegna. Next, Serena Brunelli writes about the Zara territory, then under the aegis of the Le Marche regional protection bureaus. Patrizia Dragoni discusses Achille Bertini Calosso who, in addition to most of the Umbrian heritage items, recovered numerous items for Lombardy from remote areas of Umbria and, after the armistice, from the neutral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, which by agreement had become Vatican property. The third section begins with a description of the role played by Kunstschutz (art protection) as well as the Monuments and Fine Arts & Archives Commission. Susanne Adina Meyer and Andrea Paolini contribute essays on the Kunstschutz. The first, through examination of the German literature—little known in Italy—analyzes the work of German officers collaborating with protection bureaus before and after September 8, 1943. Similarly, Andrea Paolini examines the case of Le Marche, and, while acknowledging some criminal incidents, tempers the cliché of German looters, discussing the “protection of the Reich” for works they knew had been protected. Next, Ilaria Dagnini Brey writes about the Monuments and Fine Arts & Archives Commission, describing the creation and training of members working in Italy. Caterina Paparello and Ruggero Ranieri then describe various steps taken in Le Marche and Umbria to safeguard their cultural and artistic heritage, even seeking to repatriate stolen items, as with some paintings from the city of Perugia, from the collection of the Dutch art historian Raimond Van Marle, taken in June 1944 by retreating German troops. In addition to documenting the story of this collection’s theft—reconstructed here for the first time—Maria Cecilia Mazzi also sheds light on the critic’s relationship to the antique market, to elucidate the history of Italian artistic heritage conservation in the 1930s. Patrizia Dragoni also examines new evidence relating to the theft of a Cavalier d'Arpino painting owned by the National Gallery of Umbria, and attributes the theft not to the Germans, as previously thought, but rather to the Allies. Finally, Carmen Vitale documents consistent efforts, by the 1954 Hague Convention and the very recent creation of the United Nations Peacekeepers for culture, to safeguard an artistic and cultural heritage constantly under threat

Marta Nezzo (2017), Ugo Ojetti. Critica, azione, ideologia. Dalle Biennali d’arte antica al Premio Cremona, Il Poligrafo: Padova, 268 pp./Marta Nezzo (2017), Ugo Ojetti. Criticism, action, ideology. From the Venice Arts Festivals of ancient art to the Cremona Prize, Il Poligrafo: Padova, 268 pp.

Recensione / Book reviewMarta Nezzo (2017), Ugo Ojetti. Critica, azione, ideologia. Dalle Biennali d’arte antica al Premio Cremona, Il Poligrafo: Padova, 268 pp

«La concezione moderna del museo» (1930). All’origine di un sistema di regole comuni per i musei / “The modern conception of the museum” (1930). To the origins of a system of common rules for museums

Il Code of Ethics for Museums ICOM, adottato nel 1986 e aggiornato nel 2001 e nel 2004, ha come antefatto il lavoro sviluppato tra le due guerre per impulso della Società delle Nazioni attraverso l’Office International des Musées e il suo periodico «Mouseion», che dal 1927 costituì un forum internazionale permanente. Il numero di «Mouseion» dedicato nel 1930 a La conception moderne des musées rappresenta, come è stato affermato, un «vero e proprio manuale di museologia moderna», che parte «dalle questioni amministrative e legali, alle forme di accrescimento delle collezioni, alla loro sorveglianza, agli aspetti più specificamente museografici, alla funzione del museo come centro di ricerca e documentazione, fino a esplorare tutte le potenzialità educative».  come il Code of Ethics for Museum Workers pubblicato nel 1925 e il Manual for small museums del 1927, sia il Final Report della Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries inglese, pubblicato nel 1929 e nel 1930, che chiedeva la creazione di una Standing Commission.Recuperare questa pagina di storia della museologia serve anche a riflettere sul fatto che quasi cento anni non sono bastati per giungere a una teoria ed a una prassi condivise talvolta neanche a livello nazionale, come sembrano dimostrare le accese polemiche odierne, specialmente italiane, su cosa debba intendersi per valorizzazione e quali competenze debba avere il direttore di un museo, se unicamente in materia di museologia e nelle discipline attinenti alla tipologia prevalente delle collezioni o anche in quelle economico-aziendali, amministrative, organizzative e di marketing. The Code of Ethics for Museums ICOM, which was adopted in 1986 and updated in 2001 and 2004, has as antecedent the work developed between the WWI and WWII by the League of Nations through the Office International des Musées and its periodic «Mouseion», which since 1927 constituted a permanent international forum. The number of «Mouseion» dedicated in 1930 to The modern conception of Museums is, as has been stated, a «real modern museology manual» who set off «by the administrative and legal matters, to the forms of growth of the collections to their surveillance, to more specifically museological aspects, the function of the museum as a research and documentation center, to explore all the educational potential».In it joined both the previous American reflections, such as the Code of Ethics for Museum Workers published in 1925 and the Manual for small museums of 1927, both the English Final Report of the Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries, published in 1929 and in 1930, calling for the creation of a Standing Commission. Retrieve this museology’s history page also serves to reflect on the fact that almost one hundred years have not been enough to arrive at a theory and a shared practice sometimes even at national level, as they seem to demonstrate today the heated controversy, especially in Italy, about what should it means value and what skills should be the director of a museum, if only in the field of museology and in the disciplines relevant to the predominant type of collections, or even in economic-business, administrative, organizational and marketing-related.