Art History Lecture w/ Ramiro Sanchez & Tom Richards - Art & Music

An Installment in the Art History related content on The FAA Collective Patreon

Dear Patrons,

Thank you, as always, for your kind support! This week we are excited to present you with an art history lecture that is a little different. A joint effort between Tom Richards, Assistant Director of The Florence Academy of Art and Ramiro Sanchez, Director of the Advanced Painting program, we are taken on a multi sensory journey, pairing live music by two violists with several artworks and their specific contexts as well as an analysis between the connection of the music and the art. Playing musical arrangements by Giuseppe Maria Gioacchino Cambini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (full list below), our celebrated performers of the evening were Stefano Zanobini, 1st viola of the ‘Orchestra della Toscana’, and Hildegard Kuen, a viola professor at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

After a brief introduction by Ramiro, combined with the music by Zanobini and Kuen, Richards begins to take us through several artworks, beginning with a study for a painting by J. S. Sargent, asking us to contemplate the connections between music and visual art. These two disciplines often share similar viewing spaces such as halls and churches, and are both enormously effective narrative tools capable of telling complex and emotional stories.

The composers we are listening to, Cambini and Mozart, were contemporaries and had even met in Florence. Learning about Cambini’s life, we are introduced to the concept and reality of the mental asylums and hospitals of the time, and that sadly, Cambini had died in one in 1825. It is this connection with mental and physical duress that is the unifying theme of the artworks shown in this lecture.

Below you will find a list of the artworks shown and the musical pieces played as well as information on the specific selection of music and information on the organizers of the event.

We hope you thoroughly enjoy this musical and visual experience!

Artworks:

Rehearsal of the Pasdeloup Orchestra at the Cirque d'Hiver, oil on canvas, 1879–1880 by John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA.

Compianto sul Cristo morto, terracotta sculptures, 1463 – 1490 by Niccolò dell'Arca (Italian, 1435-1494). Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna, Italy.

The Painter and his Pug, oil on canvas, 1745 by William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764). Tate Collection.

A Rake's Progress, a series of 8 paintings, 1732-1734 by William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764).

Various “Character Heads” by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (German-Austrian, 1736-1783).

The Raft of the Medusa, oil on canvas, 1818 –1819. Théodore Géricault (French, 1791-1824). Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

The Slave Ship, oil on canvas, 1840 by J. M. W. Turner (English, 1775 – 1851). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, oil on canvas, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner (English, 1775-1851). Tate Collection.

Music:

0:00- Giuseppe Maria Cambini: Allegro dal Duo n.4 dal Primo Libro di duetti per due viole

4:05- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Dies Bildnis ist Bezaubernd Schön, dall'opera "il Flauto Magico"

6:35- Giuseppe Maria Cambini (1746 – 1825): Rondó (Allegro) dal Duo n.5 dal Primo Libro di duetti per due viole

35:10- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Ach, Ich Fühl's, Es ist verschwunden, dall'opera "il Flauto Magico"

38:25- Giuseppe Maria Cambini (1746–1825): Minuetto (Grazioso) dal Duo n.6 dal Primo Libro di duetti per due viole

The music performed during the lecture is available in the CD “Tuscania 2” published by NovAntiqua Records. The booklet includes an article on the history of mental asylums from the age of Enlightenment to the twentieth century in honor of Cambini’s tragic end. The “Tuscania”  series of editions/publications was conceived by NovAntiqua Records to promote music by Tuscan composers from the second half of the 18th century.

This CD is also available to listen to on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/4vxxyHvYpDeHT3tnJuciOK?si=nWt2xhWLQEimKQizzCVzQA

NovaAntiqua Records: novantiqua.net

Tom Richards was born in London in 1982. In addition to his experience as a painter he has an MA in Art History from the University of St Andrews, graduating in 2005. Since then Tom has divided his time between London and Florence. In recent years he has exhibited his work in London and undertaken numerous commissions in Europe and beyond. He is currently Assistant Director of The Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy.

To view his work please visit:

https://www.instagram.com/tominflorence/

https://www.tawrichards.com/

https://www.florenceacademyofart.com/alumni-gallery/tom-richards/

Ramiro Sanchez

Venezuelan painter Angel Ramiro Sanchez was born in 1974 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. At age six was accepted with full scholarship into the Instituto the Niños Cantores del Zulia, a school for musically gifted children. At age fourteen he began five years of apprenticeship with the realist painter, Abdon J. Romero, an eminent specialist in murals for churches and public buildings. In 1993, a study grant from Mgr. Gustavo Ocando Yamarte, Founder the Niños Cantores, enabled him to travel to Florence, Italy, where he studied at the renowned Accademia di Belle Arti, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1997.

At the same time, he was enrolled at The Florence Academy of Art, founded by painter Daniel Graves, where he received a diploma in Painting. Ramiro was appointed senior painting instructor at The Florence Academy of Art in 1997, and is currently Director of the Advanced Painting Program.

Ramiro paints only from life, searching for accuracy beyond physical appearance to reach the psychological state of his subject and he believes the painter must draw his information from "all five senses" to tell the complete human story. Ramiro’s works can be found in numerous private collections in Europe, The United States and South America. Public collections include: The Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy; The Fremantle Foundation for Foreign Artist in Tuscany at Villa Peyron, Florence, Italy; The Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. USA.

He shares his life and passion for art with his wife, the artist Melissa Franklin-Sanchez.