MILAN, OCTOBER 26, 1999
[...] Today I have the opportunity, as a historian of the Ca’ Granda to introduce those presents to this exhibition of paintings by Fabio Massimo Ulivieri entitled “The Resurrection of the Ca’ Granda”. Somebody else after and better than myself will deal about the meaning and pictorial artistic and aesthetic value of the works of Ulivieri.
[...] The Mythography of Milan that Ulivieri, in a triadic succession of an almost Hegelian type (perhaps unconsciously going back to an ideal or idealistic philosophy of history of our town), has started with a “Resurrection of the Duomo”, [...] followed by this “Resurrection of the Ca’ Granda” and will continue with a “Resurrection of the Castle”. [...]
The Duomo, the Ca’ Granda, the Castle…. I remember that Francesco Sforza, newly designated duke of Milan in 1450, after being received in the Cathedral by the clergy and the jubilant people, immediately started the reconstruction (resurrection) of the demolished Visconti Castle and built the new Sforzesco Castle; soon after he started the construction (hospital reformation or resurrection) of the new “hospitale maius”, the Ospedale Maggiore which was meant to be a symbol of peace, charity and health and to give the Milanese, especially the poor, assistance and support.
I also remember that his Tuscan architect Antonio Averlino called the Filarete at first worked in the Cathedral building, later at the central tower of the Castle and in the end he was appointed “architectus, fabricator, director et ingenierius” of the poor people hostel which was to become the “health building” most admired and imitated all over Europe.
The Duomo, the Castle, the Ca’ Granda….In running through (as a painter) the same three stages passed through, more than 500 years ago, by Filarete as an architect, could we say that Fabio Massimo Ulivieri stands as a candidate, here in the same place, to be called the Filarete of the year 2000?
The question is rather impudent and perhaps provocative. But the symbol that Ulivieri is proposing us by his clear painting – he prefers clear colours and I would like to define him as a sort of Enlightenment artist of the colour – deserves all our attention, admiration and consideration.
An arch, a fragment of mullion window, a rose-window….
A window that allows us a double look, a double sight or vision: the sight of those who from inside the hospital were looking for the town’s solidarity and the sight of those who from the outside saw -with hearty eyes, giving beneficence and charity - the suffering of the sick, those Christ poor people, poor christs, crowding on the lower steps of the social scale.
[...]