Created by Portuguese artist Paula Rego to decorate the restaurant of the National Gallery’s British Museum of Antiquity, the work will be exhibited for the first time in the coming weeks, along with several sketches.
The 10 meter wide fresco “Crivelli Garden”, created between 1990 and 1991, will also be paired for the first time with the “Madonna della Rondine” altarpiece, created in the 15th century by Carlo Crivelli, who inspired the Portuguese artist. .
The exhibition, which will be open from Thursday to October 29, will also feature four initial sketches and eight charcoal drawings of the people who served as models, namely friends, family members and museum staff.
The mural was commissioned for a wall in the restaurant in the museum’s modern wing, opened in 1991 during Paula Rego’s stay at the National Gallery to create new artwork inspired by the collection.
Exhibition programmer Priesh Mistry told today during the presentation how Paula Rego initially turned down an invitation to become the museum’s first artist-in-residence, saying the collection was too masculine.
However, she changed her mind a few days later, with Mistry stating that “O Jardim de Crivelli” is a reflection of how a Portuguese woman chose to “subvert and recreate some historical works from the point of view of a European woman and artist”.
In an acrylic-on-canvas fresco, Rego depicts the house and garden of Carlo Crivelli, an Italian artist who specializes in altarpieces depicting the lives of saints, but with a particular focus on female characters from the Bible, Roman and Greek mythology, and medieval legends. .
The fresco depicts, among others, the Virgin Mary, Santa Catarina, Maria Madalena and Delilah, whose portraits were inspired by people who lived with the artist at the time.
One such model was art historian Ailsa Turner, who worked in the institution’s education department and saw herself in several figures.
“She was very focused and efficient at work, and sometimes when we moved, she asked us to keep this gesture. For example, the hand of the Virgin Mary belongs to me,” he told Lusa on Monday.
Another scene with a woman and a child was inspired by a photograph of Paula Rego herself with her daughter Cassie.
Programmer Priesh Mistry said that Paula Rego learned about the exhibition before her death on June 8, 2022 at the age of 87.
The exhibition, he stressed today, is a way to “glorify and give fame to this wonderful and monumental painting”, emphasizing the reference to the artist’s Portuguese origin.
“She based this idea of a garden and set design on her country’s aesthetic, the emblematic Portuguese blue and white tiles,” he said.
Colin Wiggins, who accompanied the artist during the creation process while at the museum, welcomed the fact that the mural was “released from the National Gallery’s restaurant” and urged the museum to keep the work on permanent display.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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