The Turkish Lounge

2004 - 2004

CDA 2543-2564 e 2628-2819

The Turkish salon of Captain d'Albertis is a romantic evocation of a nomadic Middle Eastern world that fascinated the West of the time as documented by many Italian, European and North American ‘Arab’, ‘Moorish’, ‘Indian’ or ‘Turkish’ salons. This world also fascinated Enrico de Albertis, at least since 1869, when at the invitation of the Khedivè of Egypt and Sudan, he attended the celebrations for the inauguration of the Suez Canal, where ‘a world of people , of the most varied costumes, bumped into each other, squeezed into the narrow meanders, between tents and tents', and where “tubas, turbans, fez and tarbush, stifelius and kaftan, bournous and galabie brushed against each other, mingled in common mutual harmony”. It is no coincidence that when he was only 25 years old, he would be the first Italian commander to steer an Italian boat through the Suez Canal and in the same year 1871 he was present in Cairo at the first performance of Aida. The cabinetmaker Giuseppe Parvis, who was active with his factory in Cairo, probably also played a role in the reconstruction of the salon, where the Captain visited him after his great performances at international exhibitions in Paris, Vienna, Philadelphia and the Italian Exhibition in Milan in 1881.
The use of textiles to shape the rooms, such as the ceiling canopy and the fact that this living room overlooks an outdoor space, reveals the captain's familiarity with the architectural language of the Arab worlds that are evoked here, hovering between neo-Gothic and exotic, between copies and originals. The Turkish Lounge is a particular room in the home of the Captain D’Albertis: it embodies the charm of the exotic for the late nineteenth century.

Huangdi Neijing 黃帝內經

1801 - 1900

MTPC3

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 20; Larghezza: 13; Profondità: 3

Cina

Constructed in the form of a dialogue between the mythical Emperor Huangdi (2698 - 2596 B.C.) and his Prime Minister Qi Bo, the text introduces the fundamental philosophical themes of the classical Chinese tradition, the symbolic vision of nature and the body, the dynamic relationship between the elements for the harmony of health, the correspondence between the natural ‘Five Movements’ and the theory of Yin and Yang, the pathway to wholeness of body and mind, the analysis of Qi, the main elements of physiology and basic diagnostic and curative models such as phytotherapy and acupuncture.
In the central part of the text, the body is described as a ‘natural landscape’, organised in the form of a state governed by a ruler assisted by officials, ministers and assistants who must act in constant harmony and interrelation for the protection and promotion of health.
For good care of the integrity and quality of life, it is necessary to ‘know the Dao’, to know how to ‘adjust according to Yin and Yang’, to be able to see ‘the complete body and mind’, to take care of health ‘before the disease germinates’; of the doctor who begins his work when the disease has already developed, ‘it is said of him that he is ignorant’. Annotated edition of the Huangdi Neijng 黃帝內經, the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, cultural foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Installazione collezioni First Nations, Sud Dakota

The installation was the result of a dialogue between the museum's planner and designer Massimo Chiappetta and Gerald Mac Master, a Cree artist from the Canadian Plains. Gerald accepted the invitation to interpret the museum's collections from his people and present in Genoa since 1892. The pieces came from the American Catholic Missions for Colombian celebrations in the last century and were donated to the city at the end. The display leads to the female and child world of some South Dakota peoples, whose artefacts, however, are laid on a bed of marble dust, as a sign of homage to peoples we have exterminated with alcohol, disease, guns and greed for raw materials and territories to conquer for our own good. Incorporating the indigenous voice into the transmission of the collections, bringing together multiple voices and multiple perspectives was crucial for us to broaden both the vision and interpretation.

Christ on the cross

Mario Marini Montesoro 1957 Genova

1601 - 1800

C.I.C. 96

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 143; Larghezza: 105.6

Perù, Cuzco

This painting illustrates the influence of paintings on canvas, of European and specifically Spanish origin on indigenous Peruvian painters. With the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores in the 16th century, new forms of artistic expression made their way into Peru, and taking inspiration from European masters, the Cuzco school was created in the Inca capital. After the fall of the Inca Empire at the hands of the Conquistadores, over the following decades and centuries, a creolized art developed in Peru, in which indigenous elements were combined with elements of European origin. It is in the wake of this that this seventeenth-century canvas came into being, in which the presence of pure gold betrays the strong Spanish influence, giving it light and warmth and where the artist has ventured on a theme that has shaped not only the Christian faith, but the whole of western culture, of which it had by now become part. Oil on canvas depicting Christ crucified dressed in a loincloth (perizonium) and surrounded by vases of flowers and candelabra.

Skull-shaped protome

Collezione Missioni Cattoliche Americane 1893

VII-IX - 625 - 850

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 40; Larghezza: 33.5; Profondità: 18

Repubblica dell'Honduras

Mostra d'arte precolombiana e di etnologia americana - Genova, Castello D'Albertis - 1972/1977<br>Due "mondi" a confronto. I segni della storia - Genova, Palazzo Ducale - 1992

The skull-shaped protome, made by volcanic tuff, comes from the Mayan site of Copán (Honduras), an important city-state that had its apogee between 435 and 805 AD. It has been in Genoa since 1892, when the American Catholic Missions, participating in the Colombian celebrations of the last century, sent ethnographic artefacts and archaeological finds from the Americas to the Genoa International Exhibition, which they donated to the city at the end of the exhibition.
In Mayan tradition, the skulls of slain enemies were displayed as a trophy. This skull was presented together with 18 others in a T-shaped panel decorating a pyramid, as revealed by the reconstruction of Harvard University and the laboratory of the Instituto Hondureño de Arquelogia e Historia in Copán. In collaboration with them, the cast of the protome was donated to the Museo de la Escultura in Copàn Ruinas to reassemble the panel. Volcanic tuff sculpture in the shape of a human skull with engraved orbits, cheekbones and teeth, and carved nasal cavities. There are cream and blackish traces on the cheekbone and second tooth on the left.

Sperm whale teeth necklace

Enrico A. D'Albertis 1932

XIX - 1851 - 1900

C.D.A.1083

Tipo di misura: altezzaxlunghezza; Unità di misura: cm; Valore: 13x35

Fiji

La struttura della collana è costituita da un fascio di fibre vegetali intrecciate e da denti di capodoglio tagliati longitudinalmente e poi lavorati.

Funzione rituale e ornamentale

Ornament of great value worn by chiefs and men of rank, not only in Fiji but also in Tonga and Samoa. The necklace consists of a bundle of woven plant fiber cords into which twenty-two teeth of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) polished into the shape of tusks are threaded through the through holes. Each tooth is locked in place and spaced from the next by a knot of plant fiber. Like other ornaments made from cetacean teeth, wāsekaseka or wāseisei necklaces were intended for chiefs and men of rank in Fiji. Production of this ornamentation developed in Tonga in the early 19th century, probably due to the introduction of metal tools and an increase in the supply of sperm whale teeth: ivory was imported and no longer came only from stranded specimens. Sperm whale ivory replaced the less refined vuasagal necklaces of the earlier period, which were made from the teeth of other cetaceans, such as the pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhyncus) or the pseudorca (Pseudorca crassidens).

Ungulati italiani

1830 - 1832

Italia

naturalizzati

Tilacino

1830 - 1832

743

Australia 1883

naturalizzato

Squalo bianco

1830 - 1832

27517

Italia 1866

naturalizzato

Orango del Borneo

1830 - 1832

110

Indonesia 1866

naturalizzato