MATTIOLI/CARAVAGGIO.
THE LIGHTFUL FRUIT

The exhibition, entitled Mattioli / Caravaggio. The lightful fruit, conceived and organized by the Carlo Mattioli Foundation of Parma, presents twenty oil paintings that promote knowledge of the work and creative process of the Emilian painter through the profound dialogue with the masterpiece by Caravaggio.

The courage to confront an absolute master like Caravaggio and one of his most iconic works lies at the origin of a cycle of paintings and drawings that Mattioli wanted to present at the 1968 Venice Biennale, but which remained visible only on the day of the inauguration, due to the social and political contest that developed in that year and which also involved sectors such as culture and art. The Baskets of Caravaggio by Carlo Mattioli thus returned to the silence of the studio in which they were born.

The exhibition itinerary, divided into three thematic areas, is proposed as a narrative that develops through the contemporary suggestions of Mattioli.

The analytical theme and the creative process are set up in the first two rooms within seven showcases that offer a suggestive vision of the materials used by the painter. The construction theme is concentrated in the third room in direct dialogue with Caravaggio’s Canestra and is obtained from an evocative setting based on the half-light of the room. The conceptual theme, in the fourth room, proposes the vision of the latest works relating to the Canestra and, slightly apart, a video section, which narrates the evolution of Mattioli’s exploratory process.

Mattioli tackles the Ambrosian genre and model remaining in a personal limbo, suspended between a figuration that will never be complete and an abstraction that cannot be completely abandoned. The relationship with the model becomes a long filtered study with the image of a cluster of boxes and leaves resting on a perch in his studio.

Mattioli approaches the seventeenth-century model, declining it first in a profound study linked to volume and light, then enlarging the details, with the basket becoming the fulcrum around which all his research revolves.

The title, The lightful fruit, aims to play on the double vision and perception of the light that illuminates the fruit basket but through the filter of delicacy (delight), as if it were an intimate, closed and collected space.

In the film sequences that accompany the actual exhibition, the works are collected in an unreal space, a silvery space like a daguerreotype. This visual grammar aims to highlight the basic elements that the artist used, without placing the didactic details of the document at the center of the discourse. Quotes, shadows, lights, and an obsessive theme to decline his own language, beyond the work of Caravaggio.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog (published by Tacuino) with a text by Professor Claudio Strinati and a precious contribution by Roberto Tassi.

It is recommended to wear the surgical mask for the entire visit.