| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Art Reviews From our Archives |
December 2002 |
The New Mosaic: Selections from Friuli, Italy will be on show at the ROM until March 16, 2003.
A tantalizing new view at an old art
By Alidė Kohlhaas
For several days prior to coming to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to view its latest exhibit, The New Mosaic: Selections from Friuli, Italy, my mind had been steeped in 12th century Northern Italy. I had read Umberto Eco’s latest book, Baudolino, whose protagonist comes from an area around Alessandria, south of Milan and north of Genoa. And while the book is centered around the Lombard region, it still had the power to put me in the perfect mood for viewing this small, but exquisite exhibit of an ancient art as seen through the eyes of modern artists working in the mosaic format. The show consists of around 40 pieces from the Friuli School and another 12 from the ROM’s own permanent collection.
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The modern mosaics, all created between 1995 and the present, were produced in the medieval town of Spilimbergo in northeastern Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the Italian Alps. This town traces its roots back to the 12th century when it was a feudal possession of the German family of Spengenberg, from which it got its name. In other words, the town so famous for its mosaic workers, was once under the rule of Frederic Barbarossa, who features so largely in Eco’s Baudolino. It seems a thin thread that connects the book's atmosphere to the current exhibit, but it is strong enough to allow the past to meld into the present in a tantalizing manner.
The town is the perfect place for a revival of the mosaic arts. In Spilimbergo, located between two rivers, artisans of the past had no difficulty finding the needed material in the rivers’ large rocky banks and among the colorful pebbles in the rivers themselves. These craftsmen were renowned even centuries ago for their ability to create stunning mosaics. Today the artists and artisans in Spilimbergo no longer rely solely on the local raw materials. Trained at the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, founded in 1922, they also use pieces of glass, enamels, ceramics, marble, terra cotta, . . .
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