A work created by Portuguese painter Paula Rego to decorate the restaurant of the British Museum of Ancient Art National Gallery in London, along with several sketches. It will be the first time it appears.
The 10 meter wide wall Crivelli’s gardenmade between 1990 and 1991, is also reunited with the altarpiece for the first time The Madonna della Rondinecreated in the 15th century by Carlo Crivelli, who inspired the Portuguese painter.
The exhibition, which can be seen from Thursday to October 29, also includes four initial sketches and eight charcoal drawings of people who modeled, namely friends, relatives and museum employees.
The mural was commissioned for a wall in the restaurant in the modern wing of the museum, opened in 1991, during an artist residency by Paula Rego at the National Gallery to create new artworks inspired by the collection.
During a presentation this Tuesday, the exhibition’s programmer, Priyesh Mistry, told how Paula Rego initially turned down an invitation to become the museum’s first resident artist, claiming the collection was too masculine.
Days later, however, he reconsidered, and Mistry stated so Crivelli’s garden is a reflection of how the Portuguese woman decided to “undermine and recreate some historical works from the perspective of a European woman and painter”.
In the acrylic-on-canvas mural, Rego envisioned the home and garden of Carlo Crivelli, an Italian painter who specializes in paintings for altars depicting the lives of saints but featuring female characters from the Bible, Roman and Greek mythologies and brings medieval legends to the fore.
The mural depicts the Virgin Mary, Santa Catarina, Maria Madalena and Delilah, among others, whose portraits were inspired by people who lived with the artist at the time.
One of these models was the art historian Ailsa Turner, who worked in the education department of the institution and sees herself in various figures.
“She was very focused and efficient at work and sometimes she asked us to hold that gesture when we moved. For example, the Virgin Mary’s hand is mine,” he told the Lusa agency on Tuesday.
Another scene of a woman and child was inspired by a photo of Paula Rego herself with her daughter Cassie.
The programmer, Priyesh Mistry, revealed that Paula Rego found out about the realization of this exhibition before she passed away – on June 8, 2022, at the age of 87.
Source: DN
