Friulian Museum of Photography
Castle of Udine (piazzale Patria del Friuli 1, Udine)
11. July – 22. September 2024
Tuesdays - Sundays 10 a.m. – 6 p. m.
Exhibition promoted by the Triennale Europea dell'Incisione, curated by Giuseppe Bergamini and Isabella Reale.
The Triennale Europea dell'Incisione, founded in 1981 by Giuseppe Zigaina with the aim of valorising the language of engraving, is currently carrying out a project aimed at enhancing the graphic collections of regional museums, which preserve a very rich heritage that is only partially exhibited or known.
The centre of this systematic study campaign, accompanied by new files and special publications, is the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Museums of Udine, from which the works selected for the exhibition come, illustrating the richness of the lithographic technique, which allowed a larger print run and lower costs than intaglio printing. During the 19th century, lithography reached a remarkable level of quality in Friuli, and young Friulian Romantic artists such as Politi, Grigoletti, Darif and Giuseppini tried their hand at this technique.
One of the first landscape painters to use this technique was Ascanio Savorgnan di Brazzà from Udine, followed by Antonio Pontini, to whom we owe the systematic exploration of the Friulian territory. It was the bookseller Luigi Berletti who was the first to introduce the lithographic technique in Udine and Friuli in 1840, thus facilitating the distribution of illustrated books and newspapers. The Album pittorico del Friuli (1841-1843), one of the most beautiful lithographic collections of the time, is due to his initiative. The glorious period of lithography in Udine was continued from 1871 by Enrico Passero, for whom important illustrators worked and created a series of illustrated volumes, posters and even sheet music, a production that was resumed from 1911 by Giuseppe Chiesa, whose lithographic activity in advertising made an important contribution to the history of Italian posters.