May 13 – Russia has been preserving Quinto Martini’s illustrations in an edition of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” for over twenty years in the Moscow Lenin Library. Today, it adds five bronze sculptures by the artist, who died in 1990 at 82, to its permanent Hermitage exhibition. The five are copies of the original 36 adorning the Carmignano municipal park since 1988 – a summary of fifty years of art and representation of the life of a community. The sculptures will be positioned in a new wing built expressly by the museum for the best of Western 20th century sculpture. Martini is the first Tuscan after sixty years gain a permanent spot at the Hermitage. His works – Alcea, Nature, the Rest of the beggar, the Rooster and the Rain – are already there for the opening scheduled on May 24. On this occasion, the Hermitage will also host a larger temporary retrospective of the artist that will include eight other sculptures and two oils on canvas. This diversity is witness to the richness of expression that accompanied the artist throughout his life. Quinto Martini, son of farmers, was discovered and supported by Soffici, he later became friends with Casorati and writers Levi and Pavese, whom he met in Turin during his military service. “I was working as boy on the land with my parents and during break hours I would shape the mud trying to portray the bodies of the workers lying on the grass,” Martini often recalled in his interviews. “Sending Martini’s sculptures to Russia is an important project for Tuscany Promotion: Tuscany exporting its culture in Russia – said the commissioner of Tuscany, Cristina Scaletti – is a different way to approach this large market, making culture the driving force for other exchanges. Russia is a continuously growing market for us, proven by the fact that tourist flows are in significant growth.”
