Sponsoring Works of Art: Coop and the Restoration of The Annunciation of Love by Filippo Cifariello
The activity of sponsoring works of art, while undoubtedly a promotional tool for the company that undertakes it, represents, in relation to the life of a museum institution, a valuable resource as well as an acknowledgment of the value and importance of its collections.
Recently, through the commitment made by Fondaco srl comunicare con l’arte – the communication company aimed at enhancing historical, artistic, and cultural heritage by seeking and involving investors willing to finance restoration operations – Coop Alleanza 3.0, which had approached this company with the task of locating works to be restored in nine regions of Italy, has offered to finance the restoration of the monumental plaster sculpture by Filippo Cifariello (Molfetta 1864 – Naples 1936) titled The Annunciation of Love (1898), owned by the Metropolitan Pinacoteca “Corrado Giaquinto” in Bari.
Specifically, this is a project that has now reached its fourth edition, significantly titled “Opera Tua – Coop Alleanza 3.0”, which benefits from the scientific coordination of the Association of Italian World Heritage Goods and the sponsorship of the Italian Touring Club. The Annunciation of Love was chosen, through an online vote, by 71% of voters, receiving a total of 22,294 votes.
The Donation of Filippo Cifariello to the Bari Pinacoteca
The work is part of the substantial donation made in 1934 to the Pinacoteca, which at that time was newly founded and about to move to its current location (1935), by the Molfetta sculptor who, with this act, in a phase of great fervor in the life of the emerging institution, intended to affirm his deep attachment to his homeland, for which he had also provided a significant contribution to monumental enterprises of undeniable relevance.
Taking place in two different but closely related moments, the generous donation consists of as many as forty-three plasters attributable to a broad creative path that ranges from the Bust of Monsignor Danieli (1895) to the Bust of Galileo Chini (1934) – and includes, among other things, the assertive, almost disconcerting in its complete realism, Self-Portrait – also comprising a rich correspondence, a collection of photographs, and a collection of period newspapers related to his production and personal events that had seen him as a protagonist, in the first decade of the twentieth century, of a dramatic episode of crime. It is known that the sculptor, in a fit of jealousy, in August 1905, shortly after the inauguration in the Apulian capital of the Equestrian Monument to Umberto I, had killed his wife, the French-born singer Maria de Browne.
It is precisely she who is represented, in all her opulent, disturbing nudity in The Annunciation of Love. Sitting on the edge of a tub entirely covered by a frieze of roses, an explicit concession to a taste of Art Nouveau lineage traceable, among other things, in the base of the equestrian monument in Bari, the young woman leans her ear in the act of listening to what a messenger of love with enormous wings is softly whispering to her. According to a series of testimonies, the marble version of this composition is said to be housed in a museum in Boston while the bronze was purchased by Felice Spera who had destined it for the garden of his villa in Naples.
Revisited retrospectively through the thread of memory, also in light of the tragic epilogue of that troubled relationship, the artist would have reserved for the sculpture, in the autobiography Three Lives in One published in the early 1930s, vivid and not particularly enthusiastic words: recalling the years (1895-1900) in which he had resided in Passau, Germany, with the role of artistic director of the Dressel, Kister & Cie porcelain factory, Cifariello noted: ‹‹[…] Besides the completed busts, I finished a large group that in no way satisfied my desires. I shaped and reshaped it many times, without reaching the dreamed lines. I titled the group: The Annunciation of Love››. In reality, the work, similar, in terms of the compositional scheme, to the sketch for the competition of the Monument to Goffredo Mameli (1890) and, therefore, to Christ and Mary Magdalene (1892; Rome, National Gallery of Modern Art), would have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale of 1899, where it attracted the attention of critics, along with a group of works in which the artist’s portraiture skill was showcased – Arnold Böcklin for example – and in which The Sphinx was also included, yet another tribute, through the image of an erotic and pervasive femininity, to the beloved woman.
Period photographs attest to the prominent place that The Annunciation of Love was given in a room of the Bari Pinacoteca in a previous setup, immediately following the acquisition of the donation, which was given ample visibility.
Thanks to the initiative promoted by Coop and, consequently, to the restoration entrusted to the Cilli company from Bari, but above all, thanks to all those who, with their votes, provided active support in favor of the restoration of The Annunciation of Love, this great composition will finally be restored to its rightful place within the Metropolitan Art Gallery “Corrado Giaquinto” in Bari.
