FLORENCE 16/11/2006 - Something has happened in Italy at last, and particularly in the cradle of Art, Florence. On last 20th September 2006 one of the most important artistic events of the last years took place: inside Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence it was inaugurated the colossal fresco by the master Giampaolo Talani, one of the few contemporary painters still able to execute a work of those dimesions.
The fulfilment of the fresco, patronised by Regione Toscana and by the Comune di Firenze in collaboration with Grandi Stazioni, enters into the restructuring and redevelopment plan of the main Italian train stations. Technical sponsorship provided by "Zecchi: Soluzioni per artisti, materiale per restauro". It represents an artistic operation of extraordinary value and enriches the historc building designed by the architect Giovanni Michelucci in the '30s, now considered one of the most significant examples of the Italian functionalist architecture.
Only after two months from the first bush-stroke on the almost 80 sm. of the big fresco which combines the ancient trade with some innovative technical aspects, Giampaolo Talani's work and the revolutionary structure planned to receive and support the hanging wall were unveiled to scholars, art critics and the large public.
Partenze (departures), contemporary icon of the traveller, is the theme of Talani's big fresco: a train of mankind in everlasting departure or arrival, because only the journey, after all, has a sense. It is more a journey of shadows and thoughts than a journey of bodies. Souls and minds are represented with the red burdens of memories - the suitcases are red, an absolute colour - feelings, and hopes which always accompany our existences. These figures are thought specifically for Santa Maria Novella, which presents in its space the same almost incorporeal humankind that every days crosses the space of a train station. The monumental work Partenze is the first fresco in a train station with presents the ancient Renaissance technique, a technique that today regains renewed topicality and strength...
Read full article at: "The Florence Newspaper"
