Clay. Stories about Journeys

A scientific and educational path across the seas and the millennia

In collaboration with the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua.

The fascinating topic of travel is the underlying theme of the new scientific and educational path that showcases Intesa Sanpaolo’s prestigious collection of Attic and Magna Graecia pottery.

The exhibition Clay. Stories about Journeys proposes a reflection on the aggregating role of Greek pottery in the Mediterranean area. This is a source of inspiration, contamination and development for the capacity of Athenian figured specimens to interact with today's visitors in order to facilitate the understanding of the role of antiquity as the origin of our value system. According to historian and archaeologist J.J. Winckelmann “Nothing has shaped our view of the Greeks more than vase painting”.
Curated by Monica Salvadori, Monica Baggio and Luca Zamparo, the exhibition is part of a partnership between Intesa Sanpaolo’s Art, Culture and Historical Heritage Department and the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua. It is the subject of research by the MemO Project. The memory of objects. A multidisciplinary approach to the study, digitalisation and optimisation of Attic and Magna Graecia pottery in the Veneto, supported by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo.
The 3-year project, now on its second edition following the exhibition Clay. Stories about Vases, aims to share the works of the Intesa Sanpaolo collection and prestigious local museums in new ways and with new perspectives, constructing itineraries with a mainly didactic purpose and with a particular attention to inclusiveness and accessibility.

The first section, located in the Sala dell’Antico Testamento of Palazzo Leoni Montanari, addresses the theme of “Arrivals”: the arrival of Greek pottery on the peninsula, the movement of people, knowledge and skills across the Mediterranean and the spread of figurative patterns connected with these events.

The adjoining Sala dell’Antica Roma explores the relationship between the area of the Veneto and the Greek world through a connection that still exists today. In fact, because of the many academics trained over time at the University of Padua and Venice’s role as a crossroads for people and goods, the Veneto has always been important also for the circulation of ancient vases, continuously generating and regenerating notable interest: since the 16th century, right through to today, the region has been unique on the Italian panorama thanks to its ability to procure materials through its connections with southern Italy, Greece and the East.

Contributors to the exhibition include the Ministry of Culture – Veneto Regional Museums Department (and in particular the and the National Archaeological Museum of Venice), the  Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa, the Museum of the Great Rivers of Rovigo, the Museum of Archaeologic sciences and Art and the University Museums Centre of the University of Padua.

The exhibition includes specially produced audio, video - also in Italian sign language - and tactile aids (from a replica of an ancient vase to a precious tactile book designed and made by Elisa Lodolo). Thanks to the use of the most innovative 3D scanning technologies, twenty pottery moulds have been reproduced in collaboration with Prossimi Impresa Sociale and used in a display on a site-specific 3D tactile aid designed by architect Michele Franzina.

Intesa Sanpaolo's collection of Attic and Magna Graecia pottery  consists of over 500 artefacts, produced between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, from Ruvo di Puglia and is now on public display in its entirety at the Gallerie d’Italia museum in Naples (see Attic and Magna Graecia pottery). The Vicenza museum, where the collection was previously stored, remains the site of this major enhancement programme focusing on small groups of pottery.