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THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2022 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 A t the Metropolitan Museum in New Y o r k , t h e r e a r e two perfect copies o f t h e B r o n z i d i Riace. Actually, no: they are just like they were when they had been made. First of all, they are in colors, rejuvenated, free from all those marks that time and the sea where they were found 50 years ago left on them. Every warm shade of their bronze shines and glows: they are elegant, well-built, their muscles firm, just like they had been conceived to be. The exhibit offers a beautiful opportunity to discover them. It gives a form to our imagination, it offers us knowledge we didn't have, just like a 3D headset does when we stand in front of the ruins of a Greek temple. Technology recreates it for us, adding columns, pedestals, beams, and even paintings. With the naked eye, we only see stones and a perimeter, barely visi- ble among the shrub; with technology, we can go back in time and see it the way it was in all its beauty, with its marbles, friezes, entablatures, and peristasis. The Bronzi di Riace exhibit does the same thing, it gives us works of art the way they were supposed to be. Augmented reality is applied to sculpture. Greek and Roman sculptures used to be colorful, painted in The Bronzi di Riace bear witness to our sense of Beauty and Art From the Editor vivid hues, and richly decorated. Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color reveals to us ancient polychromy and shows us the world through the eyes of our Greek and Roman ancestors. 3D imaging and rigorous art history research aren't neither a fak- ing nor substitution of the original; rather, they are a very interesting cultural experience. Colors were one of the most visually striking characteristics of ancient statues, which went irremediably lost. Basically, we are used to seeing the past in the muted, neutral tones of stone, but in truth, it was incredi- bly colorful. Sword-and-sandal movies which, with all those bright details, seem fake to us, a falsified reconstruction of reality, are in fact much closer to the truth than we'd expect. Habit took away from us the color dimension of ancient works of art. When presenting the Met exhibit, Sean Hemingway, head of the Greek and Roman art department, said: "Culture has no boundaries and we are happy to participate virtually in the cel- ebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Bronzi di Riace's dis- covery. The warriors' spectacular reconstructions by Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann are the central ele- ment of the exhibit," which will be open until March 2023. The exhibit includes 17 reconstructions created by the Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project and some 60 other sculptures from the Met collection, presented with new scientific analysis about their original colors. Hemingway, who specializes in ancient bronze sculpture, says he'll never forget the first time he's seen the Bronzi, at the Museo Archeologico di Reggio Calabria: "The emotion they give you and their extraordinary beauty could be compared to a poem by Pindar or Virgil, to a sculptural masterpiece by Michelangelo or Gian Lorenzo Bernini. They give us an idea of the levels ancient Greek artists could reach." It's all true: you're mesmerized and bewitched because the two warriors have an incredible appeal. They tell us how the ideal of Beauty has always been part of the Italian peninsula. The origins of culture are the guiding line of all that happened after, the canon that has been inspiring – since the beginning of times – the development of Italian art. The reconstructions presented at the Met are verisimilar copies, but they don't have the same power as the originals. Yet, they are important for many reasons. Among them, Hem- ingway highlights one in particular: "Many of the visitors we'll have in the next eight months, probably won't be familiar with the Bronzi, but after our exhibit, perhaps, they'll feel like visit- ing Italy and see the originals, because they are two of the most important works of art we inherited from antiquity, and they are in almost perfect conditions." This statement tells us two things. First of all, it's a summary of every exhibit's mean- ing: knowledge makes a difference, it attracts us, influences our future choices, and offers us a new way to look at things, even the way we plan our holidays. The second is that, for real, culture has no boundaries. On the East Coast – which is so far from Calabria, the home of the Bronzi – thanks to the technol- ogy that, today, can recreate the emotional experience of the past, culture in all its forms means enrichment and growth. Then, of course, there is the invitation to visit Italy: no repro- duction is quite like the original and the Bronzi truly deserve to be seen in the version history gave us. Between the signs of time, we can recognize the votive context in which they were created, when statues were placed in temples and on acrop- olises as a dedication and an offering. We can also witness the skills and ingenuity of the artists that made them. Most of all, looking at the Bronzi helps us discern the ideals of Beauty and Art the past gifted to us, but also appreciate the mysterious works of ancient Fortune: thanks to it, 50 years ago exactly, in our South so enamored with the sea, Humanity rediscovered, between sand and fish, the two Bronzi di Riace, some 700 feet from the coast. Simone Schiavinato, Editor Simone Schiavinato NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 Member of FUSIE (Federazione Unitaria Stampa Italianaall'Estero), COGITO L'Italo-Americano 610 West Foothill Blvd. Unit D, Monrovia, CA 91016 - Tel.: (626) 359-7715 PLEASE SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO P.O. BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano Newspaper (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization), www.italoamericano.org, is the largest and longest-running Italian newspaper in America, not to mention the cultural and news resource for all things Italian in the US. A bilingual newspaper which repre- sents an historical landmark for the Italian American Communities in the West Coast and throughout the US. 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PUBLISHER Robert Barbera Grande Ufficiale EDITOR IN CHIEF Simone Schiavinato ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Patrick Abbate EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Barbara Minafra COPY EDITOR Francesca Bezzone LOS ANGELES CONTRIBUTOR Silvia Giudici SAN FRANCISCO CONTRIBUTORS Catherine Accardi Serena Perfetto SEATTLE CONTRIBUTOR Rita Cipalla CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mariella Radaelli, Francesca Bezzone, Luca Ferrari, Stefano Carnevali, Paula Reynolds, Nicoletta Curradi, Generoso D'Agnese, Fabrizio Del Bimbo, Maria Gloria, Alfonso Guerriero Jr., Anthony Di Renzo Serena Perfetto, Kenneth Scambray, Chiara D'Alessio © 2020 L'Italo-Americano Membership: One year $59 - Single copy $2.25 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to L'Italo Americano PO Box 6528 Altadena, CA 91003

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