Michelangelo and the marble of the Apuan Alps

The exhibition at the Malaspina Castle in Massa speaks of the relationship between Michelangelo Buonarroti and the marble of the Apuan Alps, offering testimony of this through unpublished 16th-century documents displayed together with two works sent from the famous Florentine museum. From the Galleria d'Arte Moderna of Palazzo Pitti, part of the Uffizi Galleries, a bas-relief by sculptor Vincenzo Consani of 1840 depicting the Portrait of Michelangelo in the form of an antique medal and a painting, Michelangelo reading his poems in Aldrovandi's house, by Francesco Vinea of 1863, have been lent for the Massa exhibition. The two works represent the rediscovery of Michelangelo's genius during the 19th century, from Romanticism to the celebration of the national glories of the new Kingdom of Italy. Finally, the exhibition's itinerary is enriched by four historical views of Massa and Carrara, realised by the Massese painter Saverio Salvioni between 1810 and 1813, which render an image of the quarries and the Apuan Alps not very different from the one Michelangelo could see in the 16th century.