Clarite et pretiose et belle. Contemporary icons from the Old and New World

13 December 2015 - 6 January 2016

On the occasion of the extraordinary opening of the Jubilee of Mercy desired by Pope Francis, from 13 December 2015 to 6 January 2016 the city of Assisi will host the exhibition entitled "Clarite et pretiose et belle. Contemporary icons from the Old and the New World ".

The exhibition will be held at the Svarowski Hall in Piazza del Comune, in collaboration with the "Porta Coeli" International Art Gallery - Centro Studi della Cultura Mediterranea of ​​Venosa (PZ), and is promoted by the Galleria Linea Spazio Arte Contemporanea of ​​Florence with organization and coordination of Jacopo Celona, ​​and with the Patronage of the Municipality of Assisi, and with the curatorship of Melanie Zafferino and Aniello Ertico.

The Galleria Porta Coeli, always attentive to the enhancement of sacred art, to which a permanent exhibition section is dedicated, participates in the event bringing the Byzantine icons of the monastery of Lepanto, of which it has the world exclusive for the exhibition, and the icons created by the Argentine master Gustavo Luis Costanzo. During the Vernissage, which will be held at 5 pm, the Mayor of Assisi Antonio Lunghi and the curators Jacopo Celona, ​​Aniello Ertico, Livia Bucci, Melanie Zefferino will be present

The exhibition of contemporary religious art will combine present and past, east and west in close connection with the spiritual and cultural vocation of the city of San Francesco. The exhibition is conceived as a journey through representations of "transcendencies", that is images imbued with spirituality, beauty and harmony, reminiscent of the words of St. Francis referring to the stars in his Canticle of Creatures.

The exhibition itinerary is divided into three groups of works:

- the first consists of a collection of contemporary icons produced by the master iconographers of the monastery Adelfotis Metamorfoseos Sotiros of Nafpaktos (Lepanto) respecting the iconographic canons of Christian orthodoxy of Byzantine rite and of the technical and artistic traditions handed down for centuries in this context. These are paintings on a table with a strong visual impact, made with bolus gilding using 24 carat gold leaf, so as to enhance the tones of ochres and precious pigments of mineral origin spread on the wooden support using the egg tempera as a medium ;

- the second contains the works of Gustavo Luis Costanzo, an Argentine master iconographer, who has an experience of monasticism in the Holy Land and Italian by adoption, who expresses his religious feeling through a painting reminiscent of the Byzantine traditions of the Cretan school;

- the third and last nucleus is signed by another painter from the "new world", the Brazilian Carlos Araujo, whose artistic activity is bearer of a religious sign and appears to be of Roman Catholic Apostolic faith, clearly explicating in large tables illustrating the Bíblia Citações (the first copy of this volume was given to Pope Benedict XVI by the governor of the State of São Paulo in 2007). The protagonists of the paintings by Araujo are iconic figures in their own way, permeated by a "sacred light from the West" that "has an intensity corresponding to the distance that God allows us to fix his face".

With the participation in such an important event, such as the extraordinary opening of the Jubilee Year, in one of the cities most dear to Christianity, the Lucanian gallery Porta Coeli is confirmed as a reality of the highest cultural profile.