{"id":11656,"date":"2023-04-25T15:23:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T05:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marianmcguinness.com\/?p=11656"},"modified":"2023-04-25T15:23:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T05:23:24","slug":"milan-the-magnificent-from-da-vinci-to-armani-a-virtual-guide-by-dr-nick-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marianmcguinness.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/25\/milan-the-magnificent-from-da-vinci-to-armani-a-virtual-guide-by-dr-nick-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"Milan the Magnificent – from da Vinci to Armani – a virtual guide by Dr Nick Gordon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Milan’s Piazza del Duomo with its iconic buildings<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, when visiting Milan with a friend, on our train journey across the top of Italy to Bergamo, Lake Garda, Sirmione and Venice, we only set aside a brief time to explore Milan\u2019s historic centre visiting its statue-spired, gothic duomo and its chic, 19th-century, double-barrelled-glass-arcaded Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 11, joining Piazza del Duomo and Piazza della Scala. We later sat high in the gods at La Scala, one of the world\u2019s greatest opera houses, to watch Gustavo Dudamel conduct Mozart’s, Don Giovanni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We sat in the gods of La Scala<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We also naively sidled up to the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie to see Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s,\u00a0The Last Supper<\/em>, only to be admonished for not booking six months prior. No amount of Aussie pleading gave way to a viewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I have recently viewed and have come to understand this revolutionary renaissance artwork through the artistic and academic eyes of Dr Nick Gordon, during his recent\u00a0limelight-arts-travel<\/em><\/a>\u00a0online lecture,\u00a0Magnificent Milan<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick detailed the revolutionary aspect of\u00a0The Last Supper\u00a0<\/em>in its \u2018treatment of space and communication, the treatment of psychology through gesture amongst the apostles, the treatment of light and reflection, grouping and balance.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0I saw the parts of Leonardo\u2019s masterpiece that created the whole. Adding to the importance of this work, we zoomers to this lecture, saw how close the world had come to losing this masterpiece when the area was bombed during WW11 (the nearby railway yard being the target).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the screen of Dr Nick Gordon<\/em> (Robert M. Edsel’s Saving Italy<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There may be Roman columns in the middle of Milan exclaiming its importance as the 4th<\/sup>\u00a0century capital of the Roman Empire, but as Nick showed, the concentric circles of medieval Milan have rippled outwards leading to innovative art, architecture and the creative reimagining and repurposing of its industrial fringe. It\u2019s a visual timeline where antiquity meets medieval meets renaissance meets baroque meets … it\u2019s where \u2018artists, architects and town planners try and create a coherent set of structures.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leonardo … painter, scientist, sculptor, musician, engineer and architect was sent as a ‘gift’ to Milan by Lorenzo ‘the Magnificent’ Medici<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the advent of the industrial era, by way of water-driven electricity and iron sources from the Alps, Pirelli soon emerges on the scene, as do Alfa Romeo and the textile company, Prada. Milan became the capital of manufacturing along with the art movement \u2013 Futurism, which was to be quashed during WW1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the 20th<\/sup>-century artworks housed in Milan\u2019s Museo del Novecento in Piazza del Duomo, some of its focus is on the anti-Fascist group of artists called Corrente. In 1948 they became the basis of Nuova Fronte (the New Front);\u00a0its members defending \u2018modern\u2019 art when the Nazi campaign against degenerate art was spreading to Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Museo del Novecento – Museum of 20th-century art<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Milan hailed in the Swinging Sixties by edging out the fashion capitals of Rome and Florence as Versace and Armani set up their textile companies and fashion houses. In 2009, Milan garnered the title, Fashion Capital of the World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, on Milan\u2019s rippling outskirts, a new CBD is emerging. The early 20th<\/sup>-century locomotive factory with its giant hangars has been repurposed as an art museum called Pirelli HangarBicocca. MUDEC (the Museum of Culture) is a sleek museum also borne from an industrial plant. Armani has its Armani Silos \u2013 as Giorgio Armani says, \u2018I decided to call it Silos\u00a0because this building used to store food, which is, of course, essential for life. For me, just as much as food, clothes are also a part of life.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the screen of Dr Nick Gordon – the concentric circles of Milan and its artistically-repurposed industrial fringes<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Porto Nuova \u2013 the old railyard and industrial area has been transformed into Milan\u2019s most futuristic district which, along with other sleek towers, showcases Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), two residential towers vertically planted with 800 trees, 5000 shrubs and 1500 perennial plants. How\u2019s that for attracting bird and insects to the city, along with moderating temperatures, stifling noise and dust pollution, let alone creating an aesthetic balm for the soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bosco Verticale towers with the Library of Trees Park<\/em> creating a web of paths, fields & forests for the people of Milan<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whether it’s travel of the mind or travel of the being, you may wish to check out limelight-arts-travel<\/a> for its newsletter, its upcoming lecture series or expert-led cultural trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Years ago, when visiting Milan with a friend, on our train journey across the top of Italy to Bergamo, Lake Garda, Sirmione and Venice, we only set aside a brief time to explore Milan\u2019s historic centre visiting its statue-spired, gothic duomo and its chic, 19th-century, double-barrelled-glass-arcaded Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 11, joining Piazza del Duomo and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[8,66,52,64,65],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n