Together with the Hermitage and the Louvre, the Reggia Capodimonte is one of the three royal palaces in the world transformed into a museum: a unique blend of history, art and nature, which opens up treasures of inestimable value to visitors. This evening the wonders of Capodimonte will also be accessible to the television audience thanks to the documentary A palace for artwritten by Keti Ricciardi and directed by Andrea Masiello, broadcast at 10.10 pm on Rai Storia as part of the program Italy. Journey into Beauty. In the company of director Sylvain Bellenger, art historians and museum restorers, we will retrace the history of this enchanted palace, built in 1738 by the King of Naples Charles of Bourbon on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Naples. Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Masaccio are some of the artists present in the Capodimonte collections, host of an unprecedented exhibition at the Louvre in Paris since June. But the museum’s heritage is even vaster: in its rooms it is possible to retrace the history of art from the Middle Ages of Simone Martini to the contemporary art of Andy Warhol and Alberto Burri, among furnishings and precious objects, in the middle of a historic park it is still today a green lung for the city.
Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte, room 11, Titian. Courtesy Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte
On Rai 5 he returns Loving Vincentthe original animated film dedicated to Van Gogh
In 2017 the release of Loving Vincent revolutionized the world of cinema: written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, the first animated film entirely painted on canvas has collected awards and caused quite a stir. “We can only speak with our paintings”, Van Gogh noted in one of his last writings, and the feature film reconstructs the master’s story starting from his works, from 95 paintings that come alive and become doors into his world . The Coffee at nightil Wheat field with a flight of crows, the Starry Night become enveloping environments, while the artist’s self-portraits come to life with the contribution of the theater actor Robert Gulaczyk. Behind the other characters, we find well-known faces of cinema such as Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Aidan Turner and John Sessions. Painted entirely by hand, the film saw 125 artists work for an entire year, while the complete project took four years to complete. To get an idea of the enterprise, just think that every second of video contains at least 12 canvases, created after in-depth studies of Van Gogh’s pictorial technique.
Loving Vincent, in onda su Rai 5 I Courtesy Nexo Digital
“Earth/Art”: contemporary art meets nature in a new episode of Art Night
Many artists have been interested in the problem of climate change before this theme became so topical. We will find out their perspectives on Wednesday, April 26 at 21.15 in the program Art Nightwith the documentary Earth/Art by Monica Taburchi. In a wide-ranging choral story we will find the visions of international stars such as Pistoletto and Christo, alongside the works of young street artists such as the Spanish Pejac and the Italian Iena Cruz. And then great contemporary protagonists like Olafur Eliasson, high-tech designers like Accurat, Alper Dostal or Studio Roosegarde, explorers of mixed landscape like Eugenio Tibaldi… And if Amar Kanwar and Elena Mazzi study the environment in relation to people, the Guerrilla collective Gardening breaks the law with a smile.
Raffaello Sanzio, Lady with Unicorn | © 2020 Photo Scala Florence | Courtesy of MiBACT
On Sky Arte an unmissable Hugo Pratt. And then Raphael, Munch, Hokusai, the Quirinale and the National Gallery
Great exhibitions, virtual visits to the museum, artists from all over the world are the ingredients of this week’s programming on Sky Arte HD. Tuesday 25 April, Liberation Day, there is a special invitation for spectators: at 9.15 pm Inside the Quirinal. The Palace of the Italians opens the doors of the residence of the President of the Republic, which is told to the public through the voices of those who work there every day. Immediately after, at 10.10 pm, Raphael at the Scuderie del Quirinale will bring back the largest exhibition ever made on the famous Renaissance artist in the narration of the British director Phil Grabsky.
Another extraordinary exhibition returns to the limelight on Thursday 17 at 21.15: with art historian and BBC popularizer Andrew Graham-Dixon, Hokusai dal British Museum leads us to the discovery of the Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusaithe author of the famous Big Wave which enchanted and inspired artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso. Following, National Gallery reveal the secrets of the extraordinary London museum in a full-bodied three-hour cinematic story. Signed in 2014 by the documentary master Frederick Wiseman and nominated for a Cesar, the film goes behind the scenes of a temple of art to return an unmissable portrait (repeat on Friday 18th at 2.30pm).
Munch. Ghost loves and vampire women – Edvard Munch, Vampire | © Munch, Oslo
From modern to contemporary, up to comics: once again this week Sky’s schedules make room for the most famous protagonists of art. Filmed in the brand new Munch Museum in Oslo, Munch. Love, ghosts and vampire women it is a journey into the world of the Scandinavian painter which will also touch on the lesser-known aspects of his figure, from his singular relationship with time to his attraction to the occult (Wednesday 26 at 18.05). In the same afternoon, the South American years of the great Hugo Pratt are staged in a refined and unconventional documentary by director Stefano Knuchel: narrated by Giancarlo Giannini, Hugo in Argentina (2021) is a tale of adventures and encounters – Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Héctor Oesterheld, Dizzy Gillespie, Jorges Luis Borges, tango – but above all a tribute to an unforgettable master of comics, who made generations dream of readers worldwide (Wednesday at 4.25pm).
Finally, Friday 18 at 17.40, Triumphs and Laments reveals the poetics and inspirations of one of the most significant contemporary artists, William Kentridge. At the center of the documentary, the ambitious and original work that Kentridge created in Rome on the banks of the Tiber, a long frieze that celebrates the victories and defeats of the Eternal City.