Fior di Barba: LA BARBE DANS L'ART DU XVIE AU XXIE SIÈCLE, ENTRE SACRÉ ET PROFAINE | Paris
"Fior di Barba" is the curious and unusual exhibition dedicated to the topic of the beard in art.
The result of long and passionate research, all the artworks have a common link: the beard and its role over the centuries.
Works on mythological themes are combined with paintings connected with the Jewish-Christian tradition, and then lead into a series of portraits painted between the 16th and 19th centuries, before inevitably moving on to photography; symbolically, the exhibition closes with the famous photo of Che Guevara immortalised by Korda in 1960.
Different traditions and cultures have entrusted the story of masculine aesthetics to this appendage of virility, characterising man since his origins.Although it has taken on symbolic meanings linked to customs, traditions, religious beliefs, social roles and fashions, the beard remains, in the end, the symbol of sensuality that only men possess.
Some of the gallery's most interesting works are two recent discoveries: a King Midas painted around 1630 by the French Caravaggesque painter Nicolas Tournier, and a Portrait of a Gentleman by Leandro Bassano (1557-1622), considered to be the artist's early masterpiece, a work of the highest rank in the finest tradition of Venetian portraiture.
From 3 November to 23 December 2011
From Tuesday to Saturday - 11h / 19h
Maurizio Nobile Paris
45, rue de Penthièvre - 75008 - Paris
Métro lines 9 and 13: stop Miromesnil
Free admission.
For information:
+33 (0)1 45 63 07 75