The exhibition is promoted by Fondazione Costruiamo il Futuro with Intesa Sanpaolo and Gallerie d'Italia, in collaboration with the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica – Palazzo Barberini and the Municipality of Merate. The project of cultural outreach in the Brianza area continues, with the Foundation proposing a celebratory moment dedicated to Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, with the work “Narcissus” on loan from the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica - Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
Not only has the Greek Myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image, seduced art and literature over the centuries, it has also been the subject of numerous sociological and anthropological observations, culminating in modern psychology.
Thanks in part to bourgeois individualism, Homo Oecomonicus has become a narcissist haunted by anxiety and not by guilt. Contemporary man does not seek to impose his certainties but, in the pursuit of his happiness, questions the reality of his existence. A narcissist also finds a mirror in which to observe his reflection in social media, revealing not what he is but what he wants to be.
In this complex world of cross-references which span different disciplines and show a kaleidoscopic variety of readings of the ancient myth, the exhibition presents the vision of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Milan 1571 - Porto Ercole 1610). The author of the first Baroque was inspired by the subject narrated by Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book III, vv. 339-510) in which Narcissus admires his reflection in the water of a spring, trying in vain to achieve an almost physical contact with his reflection, falling in love with it.
Starting with the masterpiece from Palazzo Barberini in Rome, critics interpreted it as a reflection on life, on the search for God through the search for oneself (Love thy neighbour as thyself), on the relationship between Man and Nature, and on the duality of the self.
The painting can be traced to the first Roman period, between 1597 and 1599, when the Lombard painter stayed at the residence of Francesco Maria Del Monte. The realism of the image evokes the painting of Lombardy, especially that of Brescia, and those 16th century painters defined by Roberto Longhi as “The Painters of Reality”.
The project intends to explore certain aspects in particular:
- Narcissus and narcissism: reflections on the psychological theme, starting with the image, aimed particularly at schools and the younger generations;
- The iconographic success of the theme, starting from antiquity, via Canova through to contemporary times and photography;
- The opportunity to admire Caravaggio's Narcissus in Brianza also offers a pretext to explore some of the masterpieces of the great artistic genius and a valuable opportunity to reflect on his poetics.
The exhibition will be curated by Giovanni Morale and will be accompanied by a publication produced by patron, collector and publisher Paolo Cattaneo.