The SAME Collection permanently exhibited at Museodivino is a group of very small artworks of delicate beauty - so tiny that they challenge our imagination about the possibility of human creation.
The name of the Collection comes from the name of the artist, Antonio Maria Esposito, who was also a priest in Castellammare di Stabia, a small town near Naples. Between 1942 and 1999, he created 75 minuscule works of art in silence and solitude. All of these works are now visible in the old town of Naples. They might be the smallest and most beautiful miniatures made by an Italian artist of the second half of the Twentieth Century. They are divided in two groups: forty-two walnuts containing scenes from Dante's Divine Comedy and thirty-three Nativities (the presepi, as they are called in Italian).
The Nativities are set in little organic containers: a chestnut, a pistachio, a cherry pit ... In order to admire these works of art, every visitor is given a personal magnifying glass! Don Antonio invented a specific technique to create his "presepi" and his millimetric Divine Comedy. The bodies of the characters are Iittle drops of oil painting which were left to dry for months and then carved with surgery instruments. As far as we know, this technique is completely new in the history of sculpted miniature. The figures are very dynamic, they seem to jump, run, knee in front of our eyes as soon as we approach them with our magnifying lens.
Here is another unique aspect of his creative process is this: the heads of the tiny characters are made with grains of pear pulp! Those "microwonders" have remained so far unknown because of the peculiar circumstances they were born in. Don Antonio didn't create his works of art to sell them or to exhibit them: for him, miniature was a spiritual exercise of patience.
Therefore, his miniatures are spiritual artworks, like the buddhist mandalas or the icons of the Christian Orthodox Church. Some of his Nativities were exhibited in Castellammare di Stabia and in Torre Annunziata after his death, his 42 walnuts with scenes from the Divine Comedy a novelty also for the Neapolitan. In fact, he used to show them only to a small group of friends and relatives, as a proof of his extreme love and knowledge of Dante's masterpiece. visitors on Christmas, while are exhibited for the first time at Museodivino, open everyday from 10 am till 11.30 pm. Anyone passing by Naples will now have the chance to admire the amazing miniatures of the SAME Collection.
Museodivino the miniatures of the SAME Collection
Address: Via San Giovanni Maggiore Pignatelli 1b
Phone: 08119708587 - 3394640080
Site:
www.museodivinonapoli.itLocation inserted by
Silvia Corsi