A garden within a garden: spring blooms at the Magnani Rocca Foundation with the Flora exhibition

Flowers have been a source of inspiration for artists since ancient times. This theme, dear to art history, is explored and examined at the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo in the exhibition Flora. The Enchantment of Flowers in Italian Art from the Twentieth Century to Today, running until June 29, 2025. The exhibition path, curated by Daniela Ferrari and Stefano Roffi, consists of over one hundred works and is divided into nine thematic areas to lead viewers through different perspectives and reflections. Important works are present, coming mostly from the Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, other museum institutions, and private collections. The exhibition creates a bridge between the early twentieth century and the present day, allowing visitors to experience an explosion of vitality in which flowers are the undisputed protagonists.

AA.VV. “FLORA. L’incanto dei fiori nell’arte italiana dal Novecento a oggi”, installation view, photo credit Kreativhouse, courtesy Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo (PR)

AA.VV. “FLORA. The Enchantment of Flowers in Italian Art from the Twentieth Century to Today”, installation view, photo credit Kreativhouse, courtesy Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo (PR)

The study for In the Middle of the Painting Flora Scatters Flowers, while Narcissus Reflects in a Water Amphora Held by the Nymph Echo (1968) by Giulio Paolini marks the beginning of the journey. The artist reinterprets Nicolas Poussin’s work titled L’empire de Flore (circa 1631) in a conceptual key, reviving the Roman goddess Flora, captured in the act of spreading the spirit of spring and rebirth following the winter period. Next we find Depero’s large installation titled Flora Magica, a set design created in 1916 at the request of Sergej Djagilev for the theatrical work Le Chante du Rossignol (1917), which with its colors and floral forms rises to the ceiling, emphasizing the beauty and vitality of flowers. The treatment continues in the first of nine sections, entitled In the Secret of Gardens, where magnificent works by Longoni, Fornara and Segantini are present, paying homage to hydrangeas, one of Luigi Magnani’s favorite flowers, which still feature prominently in the park and on the stairs leading to the Villa of Masterpieces. There are also works from the divisionist period of Balla and Boccioni, with luminous and brilliant color fields.

Felice Casorati with Scherzo: Cornflowers (Study for decorations), 1914, is part of the Symbolic section. Scherzo, whose reference to the world of music is evident, is characterized by a black background from which a vase of flowers emerges, on which the artist’s image appears reflected. Casorati’s mastery is evident in this work, which manages to balance the different colors of dark tones, just as in a musical composition. Flowering Garden (1923-1925) by Luigi Bonazza, the exhibition’s poster, is displayed within this section. A triumph of colors and flowers of different shapes symbolize a lush flowering garden, immersing the viewer in the joy of spring. Also significant is Life and Love by Galileo Chini. The works selected for this section are influenced by the Viennese Secession carried forward by Klimt, as received by the artists of the time.

A series of female portraits characterizes the Queens of Flowers: in this section, visitors are greeted by Giovanni Boldini’s portrait titled The Baroness de Gunzburg, circa 1900-1905, who is immortalized smiling while holding a bouquet of roses. The latter adorns the dress and enriches the painting, emphasizing how flowers have always represented a welcome and precious tribute. In the same section we works by Zandomeneghi, Guttuso, Bocchi, Bucci. Figure of a Woman, 1932 by Antonio Donghi strikes for its alienating air, characteristic of Magical Realism. The woman, immersed in a timeless atmosphere, observes the viewer, while the vase of flowers in the foreground, if on one hand represents a highly decorative element, on the other almost seems to keep the protagonist company. Balla and Depero are the protagonists of Futurist Flowers. As he himself maintained, Depero is interested in the architecture and dynamics of vegetation. This is evident in the work Flora, 1946, where flowers are represented with vivid color fields and innervated by forces intrinsic to their nature. Balla studies dynamism and forces linked to nature, portraying them with moving lines of vivid colors, as in Spring Expansion, 1918.

Giorgio Morandi’s flowers in a vase open the section of Silent Flowers. The silence of the painter’s compositions resonates through the color fields and metaphysical atmospheres and is accompanied in this section also by the works of De Pisis. Of considerable interest is the juxtaposition between Flowers, 1935 by Antonio Donghi and the work on photographic paper by Carlo Benvenuto, 2010. Roses are the undisputed protagonists of the section A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, in which these flowers painted by Giorgio Morandi dialogue with the contemporary work of Bertozzi & Casoni inspired by Morandi’s own work, titled For Morandi, 2020. The rose, always an emblem of beauty and sensitivity, is depicted in the works of Boldini, Oppi, Carrà and Achille Funi, who in his composition Flowers, 1920 displays in the foreground a profusion of roses in a votive amphora dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. As in a picture gallery, the works of the section Cut Flowers are positioned. Flowers collected and arranged in vases are portrayed by different artists, who highlight their different forms and color fields, giving the flowers an intrinsic vitality, an introspective quality and an emotional tension, as in White Carnations with Violets, circa 1936 by Mario Mafai or Vase of Flowers, 1938-1939 by Renato Guttuso or in Vase of Flowers, 1946 by Arturo Tosi.

Restless is the penultimate section of the exhibition, in which works are collected, as in a second picture gallery, by artists such as Pasolini, Renè Paresce, Savinio, Carlo Levi, Tancredi, Campigli, De Chirico, Pirandello, Guttuso, Afro, etc. The central work of the section is the Lightning-Struck Gladiolus, 1930 by De Pisis, in which the artist immortalizes the moment when the flower is immersed in a sudden meteorological variation. The works in this section remind us of the transience of life, suffering as a condition of existence. Flowers and vegetation are represented with emotional tension, in an alienating equilibrium far from the previous serene atmospheres of the compositions present in the exhibition. With the section Contemporary Flora, the exhibition path concludes. There are works by Morlotti, Kounellis, Schifano, Sophie Ko, Davide Benati, etc., testifying to how flowers continue to represent a theme of strong interest in contemporary times and a subject to be represented with the most diverse expressive techniques. Giulio Paolini, with the work The Artist Thanks (1940), bids farewell to the viewer. In a perspective environment, the face of the drawn silhouette is covered by a bouquet of flowers.

Concurrent with the exhibition, it is possible to visit the park, renovated thanks to a targeted PNRR intervention. Among the intentions of the Foundation, as indicated in the Press Release of the exhibition, is to engage in an artistic dialogue with the external spaces, in order to pay homage to the activity carried out by Luigi Magnani, who worked to have the landscape recognized and protected as a cultural asset, along with other intellectuals. In fact, on October 29, 1955, Luigi Magnani together with Elena Croce, Umberto Zanotti Bianco, Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda, Pietro Paolo Trompeo, Giorgio Bassani, Hubert Howard signed the founding act of Italia Nostra. Accompanying the exhibition, the catalog Flora. The Enchantment of Flowers in Italian Art from the Twentieth Century to Today is available.

Info:

AA.VV. FLORA. The Enchantment of Flowers in Italian Art from the Twentieth Century to Today
15/03 – 29/06/2025
Fondazione Magnani-Rocca
Mamiano di Traversetolo – Parma
www.magnanirocca.it