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I remember my first visit to Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella, near Stresa on Lake Maggiore, as if it were yesterday. I was only 7 or 8 years old, and a child's curiosity drove me to run ahead of everyone during the guided tour, eager to be in the front row. I wanted to hear every word the guide said and tried to get the best possible view, considering my not-so-imposing height at the time.Over the years, I have returned many times to this place that tastes like a fairy tale for me. Each time, I brought home some image,…

When discussing the "spatial concept," one's mind immediately leaps to Lucio Fontana's famous "slashes," an icon that has profoundly marked the collective imagination, including those not regularly immersed in the art world. This term, widely debated and analyzed by critics, refers – in very simplified terms – to the artist's attempt to explore dimensions beyond the painted surface, seeking alternative spaces to extend the artistic experience beyond the canvas's limits.Without dwelling excessively on Fontana, or entering the debate about him, I wish to focus instead on how, in eras preceding his famous "slashes" or "holes," other artists explored this "beyond"…

Beneath the eternal sky of Venice, with its narrow alleyways and meandering canals, lies a captivating story, the story of a man whose creativity traversed the waters of time like a gondola on the lagoon. Hugo Pratt, a multifaceted artist, painted a world of adventures with words and drawings through his indomitable character, Corto Maltese, but there was another love he nurtured in his heart: Venice.The city of wonders, with its ancient stones and centuries-old stories, had enchanted Pratt's wandering soul. This man, a poet with a pencil, explored every hidden nook and toasted in smoky taverns with friends. But…

Josef Sudek, the poet of black-and-white photography, stands out as an emblematic figure in the history of artistic photography. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1896, Sudek lived through an era of profound historical and cultural transformations, witnessing through his art the evolution of Prague, the city he loved and immortalized in his shots from the period between the World Wars until the 1970s.Sudek's photography is distinguished by an almost monastic sensitivity and discretion, an approach that allowed him to observe and capture the surrounding reality with rare intimacy. His images, characterized by extraordinary sharpness and depth, were carved in the light…

At the zenith of the Renaissance, where art intertwines with mythology and spirituality, a painting emerges that encapsulates the essence of love in every shade: "Venus and Cupid Mingente" by Lorenzo Lotto. This work, steeped in symbolism and allegory, is a hymn to the celebration of amorous union, a masterpiece that defies the passage of time.The artist, a true alchemist of colors and shapes, weaving together pagan classicism and Christian values, brings to life an Eros as a grape harvester who, with an irreverent but symbolically loaded gesture, showers the goddess Venus. This act, which might be mistaken for a…

In the fabric of art history, there are strands that, like hidden gold threads in a weave, await discovery and appreciation. Orientalist painting is one of these: a genre that, while never forming a unified movement, has woven a visual narrative that deeply influenced the European perception of distant and mysterious lands.This artistic genre came to life at the end of the eighteenth century, a period when Europe was expanding beyond its borders with insatiable curiosity. The military expedition to Egypt in 1798, initiated by Napoleon, was not only a conquest of lands but also of knowledge. With the troops…