SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE - Black drapes stretched out like soft blankets on designs, extremely fragile and precious. And darkness everywhere, illuminated only by the flashing of alarms, in the silence of a night that has lasted for almost a month. It will be an anniversary in the dark, April 6, that of the 500 years since Raphael's death. With the world shocked by the raging pandemic and the most important exhibition, the one that opened and immediately closed at the Quirinale Stables, lovingly kept away, the president of the Roman institution Mario De Simoni tells ANSA, "almost like a Sleeping Beauty waiting for a prince to wake her up ". Only one restorer is allowed to visit, who takes a tour twice a week to check that there is no suffering, the plant technician who must check the operation of the super sophisticated air conditioning and of course the surveillance staff who, as in all places of art has been greatly enhanced.
In the meantime, however, we have to deal with what should have been and was not. Three years of work to define the project and put it in place, the negotiations for the loans, eventually obtained by museums around the world, from the Vatican to the Prado, from the Louvre to the National Gallery. And the controversy too, with the Uffizi Scientific Committee that resigned en masse a few days after the opening to protest the Roman transfer of the portrait of Pope Leo X. There were debates, newspaper articles, previews. And more than 77 thousand tickets sold, in spite of the global fear that was already making its way, with 6 thousand lucky people who managed to get in line.
It happened four weeks ago and a century seems to have passed. Coronavirus, a tragedy that has closed exhibitions and museums, frozen loans and transport of works of art, forced cultural institutions to run to extend insurance coverage. And yet there is no date in which to imagine a reopening. In these conditions it is also impossible to start a negotiation to renegotiate the approximately 50 loan agreements. "We hope so - De Simoni confides - If the possibility arose, as indeed has begun to be done in China, I would be willing to keep the doors of the Stables open day and night".
So much so, the most optimistic hypothesis is this at the moment, being able to open "even just a week or two", perhaps going a little further than the limit set for June 2, given that with closed borders it will be it is also difficult to return the works obtained on loan. At the moment it is also difficult to hazard a damage account, for an event that brought together works for an insured value of € 4 billion. "It is not known, if we could reopen it, we would do it with extended hours, also to dilute flows and the income statement between sponsors and tickets may not be affected ", reasons De Simoni. The tickets already sold have not been refunded: as provided for in the Cura Italia decree, they will be transformed into vouchers valid for one year, to be spent perhaps for the next exhibition, dedicated to the golden century of art in Genoa. And if the situation could really improve in relative haste, air flights could resume, tourism - at least European tourism - could start again, there could be other opportunities. Some in Italy, at the National Gallery of Umbria, for example, where the exhibition of the seven Perugian copies of the Deposition Baglioni is scheduled from 9 October to 10 January 2021. Or in Città di Castello, always in Umbria, with Raffaello Giovane and his gaze on the analysis of figurative culture. While at the Mart in Rovereto, Picasso de Chirico and Dalì, dialogue with Raffaello, should open from 2 October. And in Rome Villa Farnesina has moved its two initiatives to autumn and March 2021 respectively.
The most gluttonous appointment remains however in London, where at the National Gallery the second major exhibition of the year dedicated to the genius of Urbino is scheduled from 3 October to 24 January 2021: here over 90 works from the largest public and private collections of the world (but can they really travel?) that the curators want to combine with the 10 jewels preserved in Trafalgar Square: from Santa Caterina d'Alessandria to the three Madonnas (the Garvagh, the Mackintosh and the Madonna of the Carnations), up to the famous Portrait of Pope Julius II (currently at the stables). All the rest, that is, what had been open between February and March, is stopped: "Raphael and his circle", a small but precious exhibition set up since February 16 at the National Gallery in Washington, is closed, and the exhibition in Berlin is blocked. brought together six splendid Madonnas. Raphael's year for now can wait. (HANDLE).