Domenico Morelli
(Napoli, 1823 – Napoli, 13 1901)
Gli iconoclasti, The Iconoclasts, 1855,
olio su tela,oil on canvas, cm 262.5 x 213.5
iscrizioni: in basso a sinistra - 1855 D. Morelli - a pennello -
Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Napoli
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called "iconoclasts", a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any individual who challenges established dogma or conventions.
(WebGallery)
il dipinto rappresenta la persecuzione di San Lazzaro nella Bisanzio dell’VIII secolo, quando l’imperatore vieta il culto dell’immagine con l’iconoclastia.
"Pacioso ma diffidente, quando ’O Rré Ferdinando II di Borbone si trovò al cospetto dell’imponente quadro di Domenico Morelli intitolato Gli iconoclasti, scrutò con attenzione la figura del monaco Lazzaro, condannato al taglio della mano destra perché gli sgherri bizantini lo avevano sorpreso a dipingere. Fiutando (e non a torto) qualche allusione liberale, il sovrano delle Due Sicilie rivolse una minaccia sorridente al giovane artista: “Nun fa’ ‘a pittura cu cierte penziere arinto!”. Quella mostra s’inaugurò il 31 maggio 1855 e quel quadro, poi esposto al Museo di Capodimonte, rieccolo adesso alla mostra Napoli Ottocento, aperta a Roma il 27 marzo scorso nelle Scuderie del Quirinale dove resterà fino al 16 giugno con una selezione di 250 capolavori.
Gli iconoclasti è un pezzo di Risorgimento come il coro del Va, pensiero o il “Viva Verdi” verniciato sui muri del Lombardo-Veneto. Non a caso Morelli avrebbe realizzato un celebre ritratto del musicista e gli sarebbe diventato amico. Quella tela alta due metri e mezzo fu dipinta in appena tre mesi alla metà del secolo, ossia nel giro di pagina tra la Napoli capitale borbonica, che malgrado la restaurazione non aveva dimenticato l’epoca dei Grand Tour, e la Napoli post-unitaria declassata a capoluogo meridionale, che innescherà per reazione la fioritura culturale della Belle époque. Guardando, e viaggiando, più a Parigi che a Roma. (...)"
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MORELLI, Domenico
(b. 1823, Napoli, d. 1901, Napoli)
Biography
Italian painter and teacher. Unique among his Italian colleagues in enjoying an international reputation in his lifetime, he was, with Filippo Palizzi, the leading exponent of the Neapolitan school of painting in the second half of the 19th century and a major figure in the artistic and cultural life of Italy. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Naples.
His early works are Romantic and contain imagery drawn from the Middle Ages and Byron. In 1848 he won a fellowship to study in Rome. Morelli visited Florence in the 1850s where he received his first public recognition for The Iconoclasts. He participated in the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1855 and, later, in Florence was an active participant in the Macchiaioli discussions on Realism.
By the mid-1860s Morelli was one of the best-known Italian painters of the times. In 1868, Morelli became a professor of painting at his old school, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. From that period onward, his interest turned to religious, mystical and supernatural themes, drawn from Christian, Jewish and even Muslim sources. Perhaps best-known from this period is the Assumption on the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Naples. From 1899 until his death, he was president of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples.
His realistic treatment of Romantic subjects revitalized academic painting, and his bold rendering of light and dark and his use of colour influenced both academic artists and more innovative painters such as the Macchiaioli. Morelli's paintings deal primarily with religious, historical, and literary subjects. They are marked by an intense, dramatic treatment of subject and, at the same time, by a realistic rendering of the details of everyday life.
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