On Saturday February 24, at 3:45 PM, and repeated at 5:15 PM, “Blu Sodoma” premiers as part of the DanzArte festival. This is the most recent poduction by the MOTUS Company, specifically created for the National Gallery of Siena.
Inspired by the nuances of the blue and the emotionally dense painting of the “Deposizione dalla Croce” by the artist Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, known as Sodoma, the performance “Blu Sodoma” is presented by MOTUS into the Room 32 of the National Gallery in Siena on February 24. The performance, produced with the support of the Tuscany Region, choreographed by Simona Cieri, features dancers Martina Agricoli, Ilaria Fratantuono, Roberta Morello, and Mattia Solano, with original music created and played live on cello by Andrea Rellini.
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, known as Sodoma, was born in Vercelli but spent many years living in Siena until his death in February 1549. Therefore, MOTUS performance is also an occasion to commemorate the 475th anniversary of the great artist death .
The “Deposizione dalla Croce” by Sodoma is kept in the National Gallery of Siena and is considered one of the early significant milestones in the history of art, marking the transition between Renaissance and Mannerist art.
In this masterpiece, dominated by the blue attire of the female characters recurring in the garments of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, Sodoma’s personal vision strongly emerges. Starting from the emotional aspects, he seems to outline the psychology of the characters through light and shadow, the same technique usually applied in theater. This effect is highly evident in the almost architectural composition, emphasized by the two ladders leaning against the cross, delineating in the foreground the space where Christ’s body is placed while simultaneously acting as backdrop curtains to the landscape in the background.
Starting with the “theatrical” composition of the sixteenth-century altarpiece and the video dance work “CAPOLAVORI IN BALLO” (“MASTERPIECES IN DANCE”), created in the Pinacoteca by MOTUS in 2021, the Company traces the beginning of the new gestural narrative of “Blu Sodoma,” unraveling it through the shades of electric blue in the dancers’ costumes, which become an extension and continuation of those worn by the characters in the painting.
“Blu Sodoma” is part of DanzArte. A dance performed among the paintings of the Pinacoteca di Siena, a series of three events where dance interacts with the works of the National Gallery of Siena.
The project is organized by the National Gallery in collaboration with Fondazione Toscana Spettacolo onlus with the aim of enhancing the cross-contamination between different expressions and different ages.
All performances take place at 3:45 PM and 5:15 PM, followed by half-hour guided tours of the Renaissance and Mannerist sections of the museum.
Admissions are limited in number and are divided into two sessions.
Reservations are made by sending email to pin-si.comunicazione@cultura.gov.it Participation is included in the reduced entrance fee to the Pinacoteca, which is 2 euros.