The Galleria Russo opens on February 21st the exhibition “Ninfa e Musa. Un secolo del femminile nell’arte”, dedicated to the various interpretations of the female figure by some great masters of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Curated by art historian Daniela Fonti—author of the Gino Severini catalog, scientific director alongside Francesco Tetro of Opera di Duilio Cambellotti and president of the Fondazione Carlo Levi —the exhibition presents an important selection of 55 works, including drawings, paintings, and sculptures. It offers a complex and multifaceted vision of the relationship between Art and Woman, not only as a subject of representation but also as a protagonist in a continuously evolving social and cultural scene.
“I have decided to organize an exhibition on women in art to explore the mysterious alchemy that has always characterized the relationship between artist and subject,” states Fabrizio Russo, owner of the gallery. “The exhibition aims to capture the attraction to the marvelous female forms, immortalized on canvas at the moment of encounter. The expressive energy, constantly evolving with the artist’s experiences, draws the observer into the profound fascination of passion. Furthermore, it allows us to follow the evolution of women’s roles in society through the works of great masters.”
The exhibition journey begins with John Singer Sargent and his Princess de Beaumont, painted in 1884, “a period when— as Daniela Fonti highlights— portraiture was emerging across Europe as a highly successful cultural trend for the middle class, eager to see their newly achieved status of wealth and social recognition consecrated. Sargent’s painting, in fact,” continues the curator, “depicts a haughty woman, fully aware not only of her social status but also of her personal power”. Likewise, Antonio Mancini, with Figura femminile (1890-1900), leads the observer to a reinterpretation of women’s intimacy and psychology, capturing their beauty in a suspended moment.
The journey continues with Cariatide by Amedeo Modigliani, part of a cycle created between 1910 and 1914, which translates his pursuit of essentiality into a quest for classical purity. Alongside this is Ritratto di bambina (1911) by Umberto Boccioni, which, through its radiant chromaticism, dynamism, and psychological attention to the subject, anticipates the innovations of Futurism. Giacomo Balla Giacomo Balla, with his two studies titled La Pazza (1904) explores unusual aspects of madness, focusing on details of clothing or the unstable and disjointed posture of the young woman portrayed. Meanwhile, with La Figlia del Sole (1933) he modernizes the representation of women, drawing inspiration from the “popular” techniques of photography and cinema, as well as the glamorous world of illustrated magazines.
Another fundamental work is Giorgio de Chirico’sBagnanti sopra una spiaggia (1934) in which, between dream and reality, female figures are depicted (with nods to Tiziano and Ingres), suspended between metaphysical reality and the everyday. This enigmatic vision is joined byDonna Dormiente (1933) and Due Nudi (1947-1948) by Carlo Levi, in which color gives form and fullness to the figures through brushstrokes that enhance their sensuality.
The two tempera works by Gino Severini Danseuse dans la lumière (étude de mouvement) (1913) and Danseuse abstraite (1958), exemplify the centrality of dance in his artistic research, expressed through Futurist and Neocubist language.
Between 1889 and 1913, the female model was innovatively expressed through the language of Art Nouveau, which in Italy found a strong advocate in Duilio Cambellotti. His work, open to European influences, materialized in graphic projects, advertising posters, and stained glass window designs, creating a new aesthetic for the bourgeois home of the newly unified Italian state.
Henri Matisse, with Nu debout (1908-1909), placed the female nude—through his unmistakable style—at the center of his artistic teaching during his courses at the Académie Internationale in Paris, exploring forms that render the female body an expression of purity and freedom.A similar synthesis of form is examined by Adolfo Wildt in his workPianto sulla porta chiusa (1919), a drawing of exquisite technique that the artist gifted to Margherita Sarfatti, one of his greatest supporters. The renowned critic and writer is also the subject of a distinctive pastel and tempera work by Mario Sironi (1916-1917), in which the artist captures the subject’s psychological depth, highlighting the complexity of her role in the cultural and social landscape of the time.
The emergence of these various modes of representing the female figure is evident in the works exhibited at the Galleria Russo by André Derain, Achille Funi, Antonio Donghi, Carlo Socrate, Scipione, Carlo Levi, Fausto Pirandello.
Derain, in particular, with his Nu debout, created in the 1930s, proposes a vision that enhances the expressive potential of the woman’s body. The research on the nude is elaborated by Felice Casorati with Nudo di Schiena (1921-1922) and by Arturo Martini with the sculpture La Pisana (1928-1930), two images of abstract purity alluding to an Eden considered lost.
On display important sculptures by Giacomo Manzù: Testa di Inge (1947) and Modella seduta (1959), together with the “surreal” Danzatrice (1956) by Mirko Balsaldella.
Sealing the narrative of the exhibition path is the dreamlike and ironic testimony of Alberto Savinio, whose Nascita di venere (1950) is on display, a work that proposes his particular vision of the woman as a hybrid generated by the encounter between the animal and the mythological worlds.
Catalogue published by Gangemi Editore.
