PORTABLE CLASSIC. Ancient Greece to Modern Europe

With regard to antique and Renaissance art, we usually think in terms of “unique”, “unrepeatable” masterpieces. This exhibition intends to overturn this idea, exploring – for the first time in parallel – the phenomenon of serial copies and small-scale reproductions of statuary types that had gained prestige and status as masterpieces in classical Antiquity and in modern Europe.

There are two main periods in the history of European art in which a series of works of art were considered the undisputed peak of excellence and proposed as a model worthy of imitation: Greco-Roman antiquity and the Italian Renaissance.

Both antiquity and the Renaissance developed a true “canon” of landmark sculptures, regarded as the finest and most definitive formulation of a given subject and entering the collective imagination of a cultured public. These works were copied and reproduced also in other materials than those for which they were originally conceived. Their prestige was so high that, since it was almost impossible to acquire the originals, their reproductions, even on a small scale, were eagerly sought for. These “reproductions” acquire the status of works of art, independent from the landmark models, thanks to their high technical and formal features.