PROCHAINEMENT TOURNEE DU CHAT NOIR

“Prochainement tour Chat Noir” is the famous slogan of the poster drawn by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen. The Shadows Theatre was arose in the later Cabaret du Chat Noir in Paris from 1885 and it was founded by the showman Rodolphe Salis and the artist Caran d’Ache. Located at the foot of Montmartre in rue Laval ( now in rue Victor Massé), Le Chat Noir will be considered one of the main meeting places of the Parisian intellecuals, and the symbol of La Boheme at the end of the nineteenth century.

La Fondazione Centro Studi della Barbariga, founded by Angelo dalle Molle, has donated to the Collection Minici Zotti an important set of 70 French shadows on zinc with the own play and two Magic Lanterns that were used to project backdrops. The shadows are similar to those shown in the cabarets of Montmartre and they concern the well known tales: La Marche à l’Etoile, Carnaval de Venise, Le Sphinx, L’Age d’Or and others not yet identified. The number of pieces is truly remarkable, throughout the 2009 studies and researches were conducted to catalogue and learn more about this aspect of the vision before the Cinema. As it happens, the bibliography has been increased and also the Director Laura Minici Zotti has done research in Paris too, by contacting the leading experts in the field, and the few museums with similar collections.
Because of the importance of shadows the Museo del PRECINEMA is going to realize an exhibition in a place outside the museum, in collaboration with the Culture Department of the Municipality of Padua, by the year 2011.

 

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ABSOLUTELY BLACK:

SILHOUETTES AND SHADOW THEATRES

 

in collaboration with the Comune di Padova
with contribution and sponsorship from the Region of Venice
with sponsorship by the Minister of Welfare and Cultural Activities

The Minici Zotti Collection of Padua, constantly researching the Archaeology of Cinema, has collected a vast repertoire of silhouettes. In the 18th and 19th Centuries silhouettes were the cheapest way to create portraits, although by 1830 they had been replaced by photographic images.
The Museum has organised an exhibition to display the collection, entitled ABSOLUTELY BLACK: Silhouettes and Shadow Theatres. Beginning with the black figures of an Amphoriskos (indeed it is believed that silhouettes originate from the ancient Greek tradition of decorating pottery with black figures), the exhibition continues through to the 18th and 19th Centuries displaying all of the different forms of the art of the silhouette: cut from paper, painted on card or glass, embroidered, printed, decorated onto vases and jewellery… and also depicted on original postcards of the age.

 

 

 

THE SUBTLE CHARM OF THE THREE DIMENSIONAL:

FROM THE STEREOSCOPE TO THE VIEW-MASTER (1850 – 1950)

in collaboration with the Comune di Padova
with contribution and sponsorship from the Region of Veneto
with sponsorship by the Minister of Welfare and Cultural Activities

The first real opportunity to show the public the visual delights of the stereoscope was the International Exhibition of London in 1851. “Stereo mania” followed closely behind from 1860 in Europe and the United States. From modest photographic studies to the most well-known, all of the images were created to satisfy a continual demand from a wide public. Later, in 1950, the view-master was invented in America – little viewers in bakelite.
The Minici Zotti Collection has put on display objects that relate to this discussion: stereoscopes, optical viewing equipment from the 1800s for three-dimensional images, and stereographs. Special photographs of the age are also exhibited, where you can admire a wealth of images of varying subjects: of travel, where Venice occupies a significant place; of eroticism, of everyday scenes, of the world of childhood, of medicine, of religion and many other subjects besides.
Also exhibited is the “megalethoscope”, patented in 1864 by the Venetian optician and photographer Carlo Ponti. Made with murano glass, it is the only known specimen of its type and continues to amaze the public even today.

 

 

FOR ALL of the GODS of OLYMPIA… and for the ANCIENT ROMANS on EARTH!

 The exhibition took place in 2001 at Cortona for the occasion of the Exhibition of Antiques, and regarding the acquisition on the part of the Museum of 108 precious hand-painted projection slides, the chest that contained them and the original magic lantern that used to project them. Dating from the last decade of the 18^th Century, they came from the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, a temporary residence of the ducal family of the Lorena.  The slides represent the main Ancient Greek myths and many events that relate to the history of Rome.

 

The exhibitions are available upon request.
For more information contact Dr. Francesco Modolo